rêver

See also: rever

French

Etymology

From Middle French resver, from Old French resver (“to consider, reflect, be delirious”), of uncertain origin. The Trésor de la langue française informatisé links it back either to an unattested *esver (“to wander”) or to Latin *reexvadō, from re- +‎ ex- +‎ evadō. The Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch links it back to *reexvagus, hence the same as the second proposal by the Trésor de la langue française informatisé.

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /ʁɛ.ve/, /ʁe.ve/

Verb

rêver

1. to dream

Conjugation

  Conjugation of rêver (see also Appendix:French verbs)

		simple			compound
infinitive		rêver			avoir rêvé
gerund		en rêvant			en ayant rêvé
present participle		rêvant /ʁɛ.vɑ̃/
past participle		rêvé /ʁɛ.ve/
person		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il	nous	vous	ils
simple tenses	present	rêve /ʁɛv/	rêves /ʁɛv/	rêve /ʁɛv/	rêvons /ʁɛ.vɔ̃/	rêvez /ʁɛ.ve/	rêvent /ʁɛv/
	imperfect	rêvais /ʁɛ.vɛ/	rêvais /ʁɛ.vɛ/	rêvait /ʁɛ.vɛ/	rêvions /ʁɛ.vjɔ̃/	rêviez /ʁɛ.vje/	rêvaient /ʁɛ.vɛ/
	past historic1	rêvai /ʁɛ.ve/	rêvas /ʁɛ.va/	rêva /ʁɛ.va/	rêvâmes /ʁɛ.vam/	rêvâtes /ʁɛ.vat/	rêvèrent /ʁɛ.vɛʁ/
	future	rêverai /ʁɛ.vʁe/	rêveras /ʁɛ.vʁa/	rêvera /ʁɛ.vʁa/	rêverons /ʁɛ.vʁɔ̃/	rêverez /ʁɛ.vʁe/	rêveront /ʁɛ.vʁɔ̃/
	conditional	rêverais /ʁɛ.vʁɛ/	rêverais /ʁɛ.vʁɛ/	rêverait /ʁɛ.vʁɛ/	rêverions /ʁɛ.və.ʁjɔ̃/	rêveriez /ʁɛ.və.ʁje/	rêveraient /ʁɛ.vʁɛ/
compound tenses	present perfect	Use the present tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	pluperfect	Use the imperfect tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	past anterior1	Use the past historic tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	future perfect	Use the future tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	conditional perfect	Use the conditional tense of avoir followed by the past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il	que nous	que vous	qu’ils
simple tenses	present	rêve /ʁɛv/	rêves /ʁɛv/	rêve /ʁɛv/	rêvions /ʁɛ.vjɔ̃/	rêviez /ʁɛ.vje/	rêvent /ʁɛv/
	imperfect1	rêvasse /ʁɛ.vas/	rêvasses /ʁɛ.vas/	rêvât /ʁɛ.va/	rêvassions /ʁɛ.va.sjɔ̃/	rêvassiez /ʁɛ.va.sje/	rêvassent /ʁɛ.vas/
compound tenses	past	Use the present subjunctive tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	pluperfect1	Use the imperfect subjunctive tense of avoir followed by the past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
		—	rêve /ʁɛv/	—	rêvons /ʁɛ.vɔ̃/	rêvez /ʁɛ.ve/	—
1literary tenses

Derived terms

• rêve noun

Further reading

• “rêver” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• verre