céder

See also: ceder and cedër

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cēdere.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /se.de/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophone: CD

Verb

céder

1. to yield

   céder le passage ― to give way (to other road users)

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated like espérer. 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 céder-, reflecting the historic pronunciation /e/. In 1990, the French Academy recommended that it be written cèder-, 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 céder (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	céder
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	cédant /se.dɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		cédé /se.de/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	cède /sɛd/	cèdes /sɛd/	cède /sɛd/	cédons /se.dɔ̃/	cédez /se.de/	cèdent /sɛd/
	imperfect	cédais /se.dɛ/	cédais /se.dɛ/	cédait /se.dɛ/	cédions /se.djɔ̃/	cédiez /se.dje/	cédaient /se.dɛ/
	past historic2	cédai /se.de/	cédas /se.da/	céda /se.da/	cédâmes /se.dam/	cédâtes /se.dat/	cédèrent /se.dɛʁ/
	future	cèderai or céderai /sɛ.dʁe/ or /se.dʁe/	cèderas or céderas /sɛ.dʁa/ or /se.dʁa/	cèdera or cédera /sɛ.dʁa/ or /se.dʁa/	cèderons or céderons /sɛ.dʁɔ̃/ or /se.dʁɔ̃/	cèderez or céderez /sɛ.dʁe/ or /se.dʁe/	cèderont or céderont /sɛ.dʁɔ̃/ or /se.dʁɔ̃/
	conditional	cèderais or céderais /sɛ.dʁɛ/ or /se.dʁɛ/	cèderais or céderais /sɛ.dʁɛ/ or /se.dʁɛ/	cèderait or céderait /sɛ.dʁɛ/ or /se.dʁɛ/	cèderions or céderions /sɛ.də.ʁjɔ̃/ or /se.də.ʁjɔ̃/	cèderiez or céderiez /sɛ.də.ʁje/ or /se.də.ʁje/	cèderaient or céderaient /sɛ.dʁɛ/ or /se.dʁɛ/
(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	cède /sɛd/	cèdes /sɛd/	cède /sɛd/	cédions /se.djɔ̃/	cédiez /se.dje/	cèdent /sɛd/
	imperfect2	cédasse /se.das/	cédasses /se.das/	cédât /se.da/	cédassions /se.da.sjɔ̃/	cédassiez /se.da.sje/	cédassent /se.das/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	cède /sɛd/	—	cédons /se.dɔ̃/	cédez /se.de/	—
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

• céder la parole
• céder le pas
• cédez-le-passage

Related terms

• cession
• décéder

References

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

Anagrams

• cèdre