piéger

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French piegier, from Old French piegier. By surface analysis, piège +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pje.ʒe/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

piéger

1. to trap (catch in a trap), to trick, to set up

   Deux hommes armés m’attendaient devant ma maison : ils ont voulu me piéger.

   Two armed men had been waiting for me outside my house: they wanted to trap me.

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated like protéger. It has both the spelling irregularities of other verbs in -ger (such as manger, where a silent 'e' is inserted before 'a' and 'o' endings (to indicate the /ʒ/ sound), and the spelling and pronunciation irregularities of other verbs in -é-er (such as céder), where the last stem vowel alternates between /e/ (written 'é') and /ɛ/ (written 'è').

Conjugation of piéger (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	piéger
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	piégeant /pje.ʒɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		piégé /pje.ʒe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	piège /pjɛʒ/	pièges /pjɛʒ/	piège /pjɛʒ/	piégeons /pje.ʒɔ̃/	piégez /pje.ʒe/	piègent /pjɛʒ/
	imperfect	piégeais /pje.ʒɛ/	piégeais /pje.ʒɛ/	piégeait /pje.ʒɛ/	piégions /pje.ʒjɔ̃/	piégiez /pje.ʒje/	piégeaient /pje.ʒɛ/
	past historic2	piégeai /pje.ʒe/	piégeas /pje.ʒa/	piégea /pje.ʒa/	piégeâmes /pje.ʒam/	piégeâtes /pje.ʒat/	piégèrent /pje.ʒɛʁ/
	future	piégerai or piègerai /pjɛʒ.ʁe/	piégeras or piègeras /pjɛʒ.ʁa/	piégera or piègera /pjɛʒ.ʁa/	piégerons or piègerons /pjɛʒ.ʁɔ̃/	piégerez or piègerez /pjɛʒ.ʁe/	piégeront or piègeront /pjɛʒ.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	piégerais or piègerais /pjɛʒ.ʁɛ/	piégerais or piègerais /pjɛʒ.ʁɛ/	piégerait or piègerait /pjɛʒ.ʁɛ/	piégerions or piègerions /pjɛ.ʒə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /pje.ʒə.ʁjɔ̃/	piégeriez or piègeriez /pjɛ.ʒə.ʁje/ or /pje.ʒə.ʁje/	piégeraient or piègeraient /pjɛʒ.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	piège /pjɛʒ/	pièges /pjɛʒ/	piège /pjɛʒ/	piégions /pje.ʒjɔ̃/	piégiez /pje.ʒje/	piègent /pjɛʒ/
	imperfect2	piégeasse /pje.ʒas/	piégeasses /pje.ʒas/	piégeât /pje.ʒa/	piégeassions /pje.ʒa.sjɔ̃/	piégeassiez /pje.ʒa.sje/	piégeassent /pje.ʒas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	piège /pjɛʒ/	—	piégeons /pje.ʒɔ̃/	piégez /pje.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

• voiture piégée

Further reading

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