cédions

Cédions is a French verb form derived from céder, meaning to yield or concede. It is not a standalone lexical item but a conjugated form that appears in two grammatical contexts: the imperfect indicative and the present subjunctive. In writing, the form is identical for both functions, and context or accompanying particles clarifies the intended meaning.

As the imperfect indicative, nous cédions translates roughly as “we were yielding” or “we used to yield.” This use expresses past or habitual action. As the present subjunctive, que nous cédions appears in subordinate clauses after expressions of necessity, possibility, doubt, or desire, such as Il faut que nous cédions, meaning “we must yield” or “that we yield.”

Pronunciation is typically /se.djɔ̃/ in standard French, with the final nasal sounding in normal speech. The form is part of the broader conjugation pattern of céder, whose other key forms include nous cédons (present), je cède (first person singular present), and j’ai cédé (past participle for compound tenses). The feminine and plural variants align with the regular patterns of French verbs ending in -er.

Related terms include cession (the act of transferring rights or property, used as a noun), céder (the infinitive), and cédant (the party who yields). In usage, cédions typically appears in formal, literary, or legal texts, whereas more everyday narration would prefer other tenses or moods to express yielding.

In summary, cédions is a dual-function conjugation of céder, serving as both the imperfect indicative form and the present subjunctive form for the first-person plural.