Répondr

Répondr is a hypothetical verb stem used in French linguistics to illustrate the inflection of the verb répondre, meaning to answer. It is not a standalone verb in standard French; rather, it appears in scholarly descriptions and conjugation schemas as the stem to which tense endings attach in analytic representations of -re verbs with irregular inflection.

Formation and scope: In linguistic notation, the infinitive répondre is reduced to the stem répo… or, more precisely, to the stem répondr- (the letters before the final -e). This stem serves as the base for forming the future and conditional tenses, among others. For example, forms such as je répondrai, tu répondras, il répondra, as well as je répondrais, nous répondrions, are depicted as derived from the répondr- stem combined with person-ending suffixes. The exact spelling of the endings varies with orthography, but the underlying stem remains a common reference point in analysis.

Usage and significance: The répondr- stem is a standard tool in grammar guides, linguistic textbooks, and computational morphology to teach and model how French verbs conjugate in the future and conditional for a representative irregular -re verb. It aids learners and researchers in comparing stem-based patterns across verb classes and in developing rule-based or algorithmic approaches to verb inflection. See also: French grammar, verb conjugation, -re verbs, stem theory.