limoger
French
Etymology
Limoges + -er. From the town of Limoges, which was far away from the World War I front and where General Joffre consequently sent senior staff whom he considered useless and had relieved from actual command.
Pronunciation
Verb
limoger
- (transitive) to dismiss; it is normally used about senior staff, such as a minister, general, bishop, ambassador, etc...
Conjugation
This is a regular -er verb, but the stem is written limoge- before endings that begin with -a- or -o- (to indicate that the -g- is a "soft" /ʒ/ and not a "hard" /ɡ/). This spelling change occurs in all verbs in -ger, such as neiger and manger.
Conjugation of limoger (see also Appendix:French verbs)
| infinitive | simple | limoger | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | limogeant /li.mɔ.ʒɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | limogé /li.mɔ.ʒe/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) |
present | limoge /li.mɔʒ/ |
limoges /li.mɔʒ/ |
limoge /li.mɔʒ/ |
limogeons /li.mɔ.ʒɔ̃/ |
limogez /li.mɔ.ʒe/ |
limogent /li.mɔʒ/ |
| imperfect | limogeais /li.mɔ.ʒɛ/ |
limogeais /li.mɔ.ʒɛ/ |
limogeait /li.mɔ.ʒɛ/ |
limogions /li.mɔ.ʒjɔ̃/ |
limogiez /li.mɔ.ʒje/ |
limogeaient /li.mɔ.ʒɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | limogeai /li.mɔ.ʒe/ |
limogeas /li.mɔ.ʒa/ |
limogea /li.mɔ.ʒa/ |
limogeâmes /li.mɔ.ʒam/ |
limogeâtes /li.mɔ.ʒat/ |
limogèrent /li.mɔ.ʒɛʁ/ | |
| future | limogerai /li.mɔʒ.ʁe/ |
limogeras /li.mɔʒ.ʁa/ |
limogera /li.mɔʒ.ʁa/ |
limogerons /li.mɔʒ.ʁɔ̃/ |
limogerez /li.mɔʒ.ʁe/ |
limogeront /li.mɔʒ.ʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | limogerais /li.mɔʒ.ʁɛ/ |
limogerais /li.mɔʒ.ʁɛ/ |
limogerait /li.mɔʒ.ʁɛ/ |
limogerions /li.mɔ.ʒə.ʁjɔ̃/ |
limogeriez /li.mɔ.ʒə.ʁje/ |
limogeraient /li.mɔʒ.ʁɛ/ | |
| (compound tenses) |
present perfect | present indicative of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect | imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| past anterior2 | past historic of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| future perfect | future of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| conditional perfect | conditional of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| subjunctive | que je (j’) | que tu | qu’il, qu’elle | que nous | que vous | qu’ils, qu’elles | |
| (simple tenses) |
present | limoge /li.mɔʒ/ |
limoges /li.mɔʒ/ |
limoge /li.mɔʒ/ |
limogions /li.mɔ.ʒjɔ̃/ |
limogiez /li.mɔ.ʒje/ |
limogent /li.mɔʒ/ |
| imperfect2 | limogeasse /li.mɔ.ʒas/ |
limogeasses /li.mɔ.ʒas/ |
limogeât /li.mɔ.ʒa/ |
limogeassions /li.mɔ.ʒa.sjɔ̃/ |
limogeassiez /li.mɔ.ʒa.sje/ |
limogeassent /li.mɔ.ʒas/ | |
| (compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | limoge /li.mɔʒ/ |
— | limogeons /li.mɔ.ʒɔ̃/ |
limogez /li.mɔ.ʒe/ |
— | |
| compound | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | |
| 1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en. | |||||||
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way:
(Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). | |||||||
Further reading
- “limoger”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.