soulager

French

Etymology

Alteration of Old French suslegier (probably under the influence of solacier (“to solace”) and soulas) from Vulgar Latin *subleviō, from Latin sublevō (“I lift up, I raise; I lighten”), from sub- (“from under”) + levō (“I raise, I lift up”).

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /su.la.ʒe/
  • audio(file)

Verb

soulager

  1. (transitive) to relieve, soothe
    • (Can we date this quote?) Charles Baudelaire, Le Crépuscule du Soir
      C’est le soir qui soulage / Les esprits.
      It’s the evening which soothes the spirits.
  2. (reflexive) to make oneself feel better, to find relief
  3. (reflexive, colloquial) to relieve oneself

(Can we add an example for this sense?)

Conjugation

This is a regular -er verb, but the stem is written soulage- 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 soulager (see also Appendix:French verbs)
present participle soulageant
/su.la.ʒɑ̃/
past participle soulagé
/su.la.ʒe/
infinitive
simple soulager
compound avoir + past participle
gerund1
simple soulageant
/su.la.ʒɑ̃/
compound ayant + past participle
singular plural
first second third first second third
indicative je (j’) tu il, elle nous vous ils, elles
(simple
tenses)		 present soulage
/su.laʒ/		 soulages
/su.laʒ/		 soulage
/su.laʒ/		 soulageons
/su.la.ʒɔ̃/		 soulagez
/su.la.ʒe/		 soulagent
/su.laʒ/
imperfect soulageais
/su.la.ʒɛ/		 soulageais
/su.la.ʒɛ/		 soulageait
/su.la.ʒɛ/		 soulagions
/su.la.ʒjɔ̃/		 soulagiez
/su.la.ʒje/		 soulageaient
/su.la.ʒɛ/
past historic2 soulageai
/su.la.ʒe/		 soulageas
/su.la.ʒa/		 soulagea
/su.la.ʒa/		 soulageâmes
/su.la.ʒam/		 soulageâtes
/su.la.ʒat/		 soulagèrent
/su.la.ʒɛʁ/
future soulagerai
/su.laʒ.ʁe/		 soulageras
/su.laʒ.ʁa/		 soulagera
/su.laʒ.ʁa/		 soulagerons
/su.laʒ.ʁɔ̃/		 soulagerez
/su.laʒ.ʁe/		 soulageront
/su.laʒ.ʁɔ̃/
conditional soulagerais
/su.laʒ.ʁɛ/		 soulagerais
/su.laʒ.ʁɛ/		 soulagerait
/su.laʒ.ʁɛ/		 soulagerions
/su.la.ʒə.ʁjɔ̃/		 soulageriez
/su.la.ʒə.ʁje/		 soulageraient
/su.laʒ.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 soulage
/su.laʒ/		 soulages
/su.laʒ/		 soulage
/su.laʒ/		 soulagions
/su.la.ʒjɔ̃/		 soulagiez
/su.la.ʒje/		 soulagent
/su.laʒ/
imperfect2 soulageasse
/su.la.ʒas/		 soulageasses
/su.la.ʒas/		 soulageât
/su.la.ʒa/		 soulageassions
/su.la.ʒa.sjɔ̃/		 soulageassiez
/su.la.ʒa.sje/		 soulageassent
/su.la.ʒas/
(compound
tenses)		 past present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
pluperfect2 imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative – tu – nous vous –
simple — soulage
/su.laʒ/		 — soulageons
/su.la.ʒɔ̃/		 soulagez
/su.la.ʒe/		 —
compound — simple imperative of avoir + past participle — simple imperative of avoir + past participle simple imperative of avoir + past participle —
1 Only usable with preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, the past historic, past anterior, imperfect subjunctive and pluperfect subjunctive tenses may be found to have been replaced with the indicative present perfect, indicative pluperfect, present subjunctive and past subjunctive tenses respectively (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

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