espères

Espères is the second-person singular present indicative form of the French verb espérer, meaning "to hope." It is used when addressing someone directly and expressing that they harbor a hope about a future event or situation.

Etymology and form: Espérer comes from Latin sperāre, meaning to hope, and has a characteristic irregular pattern in the present tense. The forms are typically cited as j’espère, tu espères, il espère, nous espérons, vous espérez, ils espèrent, with espères representing the tu form. Like other forms of espérer, it involves a vowel alternation in the stem and accent adjustments in the written form.

Usage: Espères is commonly used in everyday French to convey personal hope. For example: « Tu espères que tout ira bien » (You hope that everything will be alright). It can appear in both affirmative and interrogative constructions, including inverted questions such as « Espères-tu que cela réussisse ? » In negative constructions the standard ne… pas framing is used: « Tu n’espères pas que ce soit possible ? »

Relation to other forms: Espérer is a regular -er verb with notable irregularities in the present tense stem, which affects espères as well as j’espère and il espère. The infinitive form is espérer, and related tenses (past, future, conditional) use corresponding stems and endings. The word espères should be distinguished from other French forms that share the same root in different persons or moods.

See also: espérer, conjugation of espérer, French verb morphology.