espère

Espère is a form of the French verb espérer, meaning “to hope.” It appears in the present tense as j’espère (I hope) and il/elle espère (he/she hopes). The corresponding plural forms are nous espérons, vous espérez, ils/elles espèrent. The infinitive is espérer; the past participle is espéré; the present participle espérant.

Etymology and related terms: espérer comes from Old French esperer, itself from Latin sperare “to hope,” which is linked to the noun spes/spes, meaning hope. Related nouns include espoir (hope) and espérance (hope, expectation).

Usage and grammar: espérer expresses desire or expectation about a future event or outcome. It is typically followed by either an infinitive or a clause introduced by que. Examples: J’espère finir demain. (I hope to finish tomorrow.) J’espère qu’il viendra. (I hope that he will come.) Unlike some verbs of doubt or desire, espérer is ordinarily followed by the indicative in the subordinate clause, not the subjunctive.

Conjugation notes: in the present tense, the stem shows a vowel change in several forms to preserve pronunciation: j’espère, tu espères, il espère; nous espérons, vous espérez, ils espèrent. The word has regular -er verb conjugation patterns apart from this stem variation.

Translations and related forms: in English, espérer translates as to hope or to wish for. The noun forms espoir and espérance convey the concept of hope, while the past tense forms express the act of hoping in the past (j’ai espéré).