French

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Etymology

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From balai +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ba.lɛ.je/ ~ /ba.le.je/
  • Audio:(file)

Verb

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balayer

  1. to sweep
  2. to sweep aside, brush aside
  3. (of a long skirt) to drag on the floor
  4. (military) to rake (sweep with gunfire)
  5. (politics) to make a clean sweep

Conjugation

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This is a regular -er verb as far as pronunciation is concerned, but as with other verbs in -ayer (such as payer and essayer), the <y> of its stem may optionally be written as <i> when it precedes a silent <e> (compare verbs in -eyer, which never have this spelling change, and verbs in -oyer and -uyer, which always have it; verbs in -ayer belong to either group, according to the writer's preference).

Derived terms

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Further reading

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  NODES
Note 1