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acheter: Conjugation

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

Present	Perfect
j' achète tu achètes il/elle achète nous achetons vous achetez ils/elles achètent Pronounce these verb forms	j' ai acheté tu as acheté il/elle a acheté nous avons acheté vous avez acheté ils/elles ont acheté Pronounce these verb forms
Imperfect	Pluperfect
j' achetais tu achetais il/elle achetait nous achetions vous achetiez ils/elles achetaient Pronounce these verb forms	j' avais acheté tu avais acheté il/elle avait acheté nous avions acheté vous aviez acheté ils/elles avaient acheté Pronounce these verb forms
Future	Future-perfect
j' achèterai tu achèteras il/elle achètera nous achèterons vous achèterez ils/elles achèteront Pronounce these verb forms	j' aurai acheté tu auras acheté il/elle aura acheté nous aurons acheté vous aurez acheté ils/elles auront acheté Pronounce these verb forms
Conditional	Conditional perfect
j' achèterais tu achèterais il/elle achèterait nous achèterions vous achèteriez ils/elles achèteraient Pronounce these verb forms	j' aurais acheté tu aurais acheté il/elle aurait acheté nous aurions acheté vous auriez acheté ils/elles auraient acheté Pronounce these verb forms
Present subjunctive	Perfect subjunctive
j' achète tu achètes il/elle achète nous achetions vous achetiez ils/elles achètent Pronounce these verb forms	j' aie acheté tu aies acheté il/elle ait acheté nous ayons acheté vous ayez acheté ils/elles aient acheté Pronounce these verb forms
Past historic	Past anterior
j' achetai tu achetas il/elle acheta nous achetâmes vous achetâtes ils/elles achetèrent Pronounce these verb forms	j' eus acheté tu eus acheté il/elle eut acheté nous eûmes acheté vous eûtes acheté ils/elles eurent acheté 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.