abréger

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French abregier, itself from Late Latin abbreviāre. Doublet of abrévier, a (now obsolete) borrowing. See also abréviation.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.bʁe.ʒe/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

abréger

1. to shorten in duration
2. to shorten (in textual length) or summarize, to abridge
3. to abbreviate
   • 1991, L'Encyclopédie Grolier, volume 1, A-Asc, →ISBN, s.v. "abréviation":

     Les principales façon d’abréger les mots étaient connus dans le monde latin […]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated like protéger. It has both the spelling irregularities of other verbs in -ger (such as manger, where a silent 'e' is inserted before 'a' and 'o' endings (to indicate the /ʒ/ sound), and the spelling and pronunciation irregularities of other verbs in -é-er (such as céder), where the last stem vowel alternates between /e/ (written 'é') and /ɛ/ (written 'è').

Conjugation of abréger (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	abréger
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	abrégeant /a.bʁe.ʒɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		abrégé /a.bʁe.ʒe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	abrège /a.bʁɛʒ/	abrèges /a.bʁɛʒ/	abrège /a.bʁɛʒ/	abrégeons /a.bʁe.ʒɔ̃/	abrégez /a.bʁe.ʒe/	abrègent /a.bʁɛʒ/
	imperfect	abrégeais /a.bʁe.ʒɛ/	abrégeais /a.bʁe.ʒɛ/	abrégeait /a.bʁe.ʒɛ/	abrégions /a.bʁe.ʒjɔ̃/	abrégiez /a.bʁe.ʒje/	abrégeaient /a.bʁe.ʒɛ/
	past historic2	abrégeai /a.bʁe.ʒe/	abrégeas /a.bʁe.ʒa/	abrégea /a.bʁe.ʒa/	abrégeâmes /a.bʁe.ʒam/	abrégeâtes /a.bʁe.ʒat/	abrégèrent /a.bʁe.ʒɛʁ/
	future	abrégerai or abrègerai /a.bʁɛʒ.ʁe/	abrégeras or abrègeras /a.bʁɛʒ.ʁa/	abrégera or abrègera /a.bʁɛʒ.ʁa/	abrégerons or abrègerons /a.bʁɛʒ.ʁɔ̃/	abrégerez or abrègerez /a.bʁɛʒ.ʁe/	abrégeront or abrègeront /a.bʁɛʒ.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	abrégerais or abrègerais /a.bʁɛʒ.ʁɛ/	abrégerais or abrègerais /a.bʁɛʒ.ʁɛ/	abrégerait or abrègerait /a.bʁɛʒ.ʁɛ/	abrégerions or abrègerions /a.bʁɛ.ʒə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /a.bʁe.ʒə.ʁjɔ̃/	abrégeriez or abrègeriez /a.bʁɛ.ʒə.ʁje/ or /a.bʁe.ʒə.ʁje/	abrégeraient or abrègeraient /a.bʁɛʒ.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	abrège /a.bʁɛʒ/	abrèges /a.bʁɛʒ/	abrège /a.bʁɛʒ/	abrégions /a.bʁe.ʒjɔ̃/	abrégiez /a.bʁe.ʒje/	abrègent /a.bʁɛʒ/
	imperfect2	abrégeasse /a.bʁe.ʒas/	abrégeasses /a.bʁe.ʒas/	abrégeât /a.bʁe.ʒa/	abrégeassions /a.bʁe.ʒa.sjɔ̃/	abrégeassiez /a.bʁe.ʒa.sje/	abrégeassent /a.bʁe.ʒas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	abrège /a.bʁɛʒ/	—	abrégeons /a.bʁe.ʒɔ̃/	abrégez /a.bʁe.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: 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).

Derived terms

• abrégé
• abrègement

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• gerbera