rêver

Rêver is a French verb meaning “to dream.” It can denote dreaming during sleep, as well as imagining, fantasizing, or aspiring to something. In everyday use, it often combines with the preposition de to link to its content, for example: Je rêve de devenir médecin (I dream of becoming a doctor) or Nous rêvions d’un monde meilleur (We dreamed of a better world).

Conjugation and forms. Rêver is an intransitive verb with regular patterns in its conjugations. Present tense: je rêve, tu rêves, il rêve, nous rêvons, vous rêvez, ils rêvent. The imperfect: je rêvais, tu rêvais, il rêvait, nous rêvions, vous rêviez, ils rêvaient. The passé composé uses the auxiliary avoir: j’ai rêvé. The pluperfect: j’avais rêvé. The future: je rêverai. The conditional: je rêverais. The subjunctive: que je rêve, que tu rêves, qu’il rêve, que nous rêvions, que vous rêviez, qu’ils rêvent. The imperative: rêve, rêvons, rêvez.

Related forms and nuances. The noun rêve denotes a dream as experienced during sleep. The word rêverie refers to a state of dreamy contemplation or a daydream. A person who dreams frequently is a rêveur (masculine) or rêveuse (feminine). The verb can carry nuances of aspiration or fantasy, sometimes with a distancing or critical tone when paired with phrases like rêver debout (to dream while standing) or rêver d’impossible.

Etymology. Rêver derives from the noun rêve (dream), which comes from Old French rêve and ultimately from Latin somnium. The noun and the verb share the same semantic core of dreaming or imagining.

See also: rêve, rêverie, rêveur.