exiger

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛɡ.zi.ʒe/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

Verb

exiger

1. to demand, require

   une tâche qui exige des compétences

   a task which requires skill

Conjugation

This is a regular -er verb, but the stem is written exige- before endings that begin with -a- or -o- (to indicate that the -g- is a "soft" /ʒ/ and not a "hard" /ɡ/). This spelling change occurs in all verbs in -ger, such as neiger and manger.

Conjugation of exiger (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	exiger
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	exigeant /ɛɡ.zi.ʒɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		exigé /ɛɡ.zi.ʒe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	exige /ɛɡ.ziʒ/	exiges /ɛɡ.ziʒ/	exige /ɛɡ.ziʒ/	exigeons /ɛɡ.zi.ʒɔ̃/	exigez /ɛɡ.zi.ʒe/	exigent /ɛɡ.ziʒ/
	imperfect	exigeais /ɛɡ.zi.ʒɛ/	exigeais /ɛɡ.zi.ʒɛ/	exigeait /ɛɡ.zi.ʒɛ/	exigions /ɛɡ.zi.ʒjɔ̃/	exigiez /ɛɡ.zi.ʒje/	exigeaient /ɛɡ.zi.ʒɛ/
	past historic2	exigeai /ɛɡ.zi.ʒe/	exigeas /ɛɡ.zi.ʒa/	exigea /ɛɡ.zi.ʒa/	exigeâmes /ɛɡ.zi.ʒam/	exigeâtes /ɛɡ.zi.ʒat/	exigèrent /ɛɡ.zi.ʒɛʁ/
	future	exigerai /ɛɡ.ziʒ.ʁe/	exigeras /ɛɡ.ziʒ.ʁa/	exigera /ɛɡ.ziʒ.ʁa/	exigerons /ɛɡ.ziʒ.ʁɔ̃/	exigerez /ɛɡ.ziʒ.ʁe/	exigeront /ɛɡ.ziʒ.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	exigerais /ɛɡ.ziʒ.ʁɛ/	exigerais /ɛɡ.ziʒ.ʁɛ/	exigerait /ɛɡ.ziʒ.ʁɛ/	exigerions /ɛɡ.zi.ʒə.ʁjɔ̃/	exigeriez /ɛɡ.zi.ʒə.ʁje/	exigeraient /ɛɡ.ziʒ.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	exige /ɛɡ.ziʒ/	exiges /ɛɡ.ziʒ/	exige /ɛɡ.ziʒ/	exigions /ɛɡ.zi.ʒjɔ̃/	exigiez /ɛɡ.zi.ʒje/	exigent /ɛɡ.ziʒ/
	imperfect2	exigeasse /ɛɡ.zi.ʒas/	exigeasses /ɛɡ.zi.ʒas/	exigeât /ɛɡ.zi.ʒa/	exigeassions /ɛɡ.zi.ʒa.sjɔ̃/	exigeassiez /ɛɡ.zi.ʒa.sje/	exigeassent /ɛɡ.zi.ʒas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	exige /ɛɡ.ziʒ/	—	exigeons /ɛɡ.zi.ʒɔ̃/	exigez /ɛɡ.zi.ʒe/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

• exigence

Further reading

• “exiger”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.