vitupérer

See also: vituperer

French

Etymology

From Latin vituperāre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vi.ty.pe.ʁe/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

vitupérer

1. (transitive with contre) to vituperate; to rant and rave; to rail against

   Synonym: invectiver

   vitupérer contre le gouvernement ― (please add an English translation of this usage example); to rail against the government, rant and rave against the government

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated like céder. It is a regular -er verb, except that its last stem vowel alternates between /e/ (written 'é') and /ɛ/ (written 'è'), with the latter being used before mute 'e'. One special case is the future stem, used in the future and the conditional. Before 1990, the future stem of such verbs was written vitupérer-, reflecting the historic pronunciation /e/. In 1990, the French Academy recommended that it be written vitupèrer-, reflecting the now common pronunciation /ɛ/, thereby making this distinction consistent throughout the conjugation (and also matching in this regard the conjugations of verbs like lever and jeter). Both spellings are in use today, and both are therefore given here.

Conjugation of vitupérer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	vitupérer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	vitupérant /vi.ty.pe.ʁɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		vitupéré /vi.ty.pe.ʁe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	vitupère /vi.ty.pɛʁ/	vitupères /vi.ty.pɛʁ/	vitupère /vi.ty.pɛʁ/	vitupérons /vi.ty.pe.ʁɔ̃/	vitupérez /vi.ty.pe.ʁe/	vitupèrent /vi.ty.pɛʁ/
	imperfect	vitupérais /vi.ty.pe.ʁɛ/	vitupérais /vi.ty.pe.ʁɛ/	vitupérait /vi.ty.pe.ʁɛ/	vitupérions /vi.ty.pe.ʁjɔ̃/	vitupériez /vi.ty.pe.ʁje/	vitupéraient /vi.ty.pe.ʁɛ/
	past historic2	vitupérai /vi.ty.pe.ʁe/	vitupéras /vi.ty.pe.ʁa/	vitupéra /vi.ty.pe.ʁa/	vitupérâmes /vi.ty.pe.ʁam/	vitupérâtes /vi.ty.pe.ʁat/	vitupérèrent /vi.ty.pe.ʁɛʁ/
	future	vitupèrerai or vitupérerai /vi.ty.pɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /vi.ty.pe.ʁə.ʁe/	vitupèreras or vitupéreras /vi.ty.pɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /vi.ty.pe.ʁə.ʁa/	vitupèrera or vitupérera /vi.ty.pɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /vi.ty.pe.ʁə.ʁa/	vitupèrerons or vitupérerons /vi.ty.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /vi.ty.pe.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/	vitupèrerez or vitupérerez /vi.ty.pɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /vi.ty.pe.ʁə.ʁe/	vitupèreront or vitupéreront /vi.ty.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /vi.ty.pe.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	vitupèrerais or vitupérerais /vi.ty.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /vi.ty.pe.ʁə.ʁɛ/	vitupèrerais or vitupérerais /vi.ty.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /vi.ty.pe.ʁə.ʁɛ/	vitupèrerait or vitupérerait /vi.ty.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /vi.ty.pe.ʁə.ʁɛ/	vitupèrerions or vitupérerions /vi.ty.pɛ.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /vi.ty.pe.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/	vitupèreriez or vitupéreriez /vi.ty.pɛ.ʁə.ʁje/ or /vi.ty.pe.ʁə.ʁje/	vitupèreraient or vitupéreraient /vi.ty.pɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /vi.ty.pe.ʁə.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	vitupère /vi.ty.pɛʁ/	vitupères /vi.ty.pɛʁ/	vitupère /vi.ty.pɛʁ/	vitupérions /vi.ty.pe.ʁjɔ̃/	vitupériez /vi.ty.pe.ʁje/	vitupèrent /vi.ty.pɛʁ/
	imperfect2	vitupérasse /vi.ty.pe.ʁas/	vitupérasses /vi.ty.pe.ʁas/	vitupérât /vi.ty.pe.ʁa/	vitupérassions /vi.ty.pe.ʁa.sjɔ̃/	vitupérassiez /vi.ty.pe.ʁa.sje/	vitupérassent /vi.ty.pe.ʁas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	vitupère /vi.ty.pɛʁ/	—	vitupérons /vi.ty.pe.ʁɔ̃/	vitupérez /vi.ty.pe.ʁe/	—
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: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Further reading

• “vitupérer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.