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lever: Conjugation

The lever conjugation tables below show how to form the French verb lever according to tense and person. To listen to the pronunciation of a given tense of lever, click on the loudspeaker icon at the bottom of the table. See the notes on the conjugation of lever at the end of this page.

Present	Perfect
je lève tu lèves il/elle lève nous levons vous levez ils/elles lèvent Pronounce these verb forms	j' ai levé tu as levé il/elle a levé nous avons levé vous avez levé ils/elles ont levé Pronounce these verb forms
Imperfect	Pluperfect
je levais tu levais il/elle levait nous levions vous leviez ils/elles levaient Pronounce these verb forms	j' avais levé tu avais levé il/elle avait levé nous avions levé vous aviez levé ils/elles avaient levé Pronounce these verb forms
Future	Future-perfect
je lèverai tu lèveras il/elle lèvera nous lèverons vous lèverez ils/elles lèveront Pronounce these verb forms	j' aurai levé tu auras levé il/elle aura levé nous aurons levé vous aurez levé ils/elles auront levé Pronounce these verb forms
Conditional	Conditional perfect
je lèverais tu lèverais il/elle lèverait nous lèverions vous lèveriez ils/elles lèveraient Pronounce these verb forms	j' aurais levé tu aurais levé il/elle aurait levé nous aurions levé vous auriez levé ils/elles auraient levé Pronounce these verb forms
Present subjunctive	Perfect subjunctive
je lève tu lèves il/elle lève nous levions vous leviez ils/elles lèvent Pronounce these verb forms	j' aie levé tu aies levé il/elle ait levé nous ayons levé vous ayez levé ils/elles aient levé Pronounce these verb forms
Past historic	Past anterior
je levai tu levas il/elle leva nous levâmes vous levâtes ils/elles levèrent Pronounce these verb forms	j' eus levé tu eus levé il/elle eut levé nous eûmes levé vous eûtes levé ils/elles eurent levé Pronounce these verb forms

This verb is essentially a regular -er verb like arriver, donner etc, except that the vowel of the stem changes from a schwa (written e and often ellided) to è. The vowel changes occurs:

• Before non-syllabic endings in the present tense (i.e. except in the nous and vous forms);
• Throughout the future and conditional tenses.

(This vowel change is probably driven by the fact that the schwa does not occur in closed syllables in French. Unfortunately syllabification does not fully explain the future and conditional forms since, e.g. a-che-trai and ach'-trai would in terms of syllabification be well-defined.)

For some verbs ending in -eter and -eler, it is not universally agreed whether to adopt the e grave spelling as given here, or to double the l or t. For a full discussion of this issue, see my discussion of the spelling of -eter and -eler verbs.