bégayer
French, verb/be.ɡɛ.je/
bégayer is spelled B-É-G-A-Y-E-R (7 letters) and appears about once in every 4 million words in written French, the 67,389th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Bégayer is a French verb meaning “to stammer” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Articuler mal les mots, les prononcer en hésitant et en répétant la même syllabe avant de prononcer celle qui…”.
What does bégayer mean in English?
verb
- 1
to stammer
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Articuler mal les mots, les prononcer en hésitant et en répétant la même syllabe avant de prononcer celle qui suit. 2. En parlant des petits enfants, arriver difficilement à articuler des mots à l'étape de l'apprentissage de la parole. 3. Parler de quelque chose d’une manière très vague, très imparfaite. 4. Reproduire les mêmes choses sans avancer.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of bégayer
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- bégayant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- bégayé participle past
- bégaye first-person indicative present
- bégaie first-person indicative present
- bégayes indicative present second-person
- bégaies indicative present second-person
- bégayons first-person indicative plural
- bégayez indicative plural present
- bégayent indicative plural present
- bégaient indicative plural present
- bégayais first-person imperfect indicative
- bégayait imperfect indicative singular
- bégayions first-person imperfect indicative
- bégayiez imperfect indicative plural
- bégayaient imperfect indicative plural
- bégayai first-person historic indicative
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce bégayer?
- /be.ɡɛ.je/
- /be.ɡe.je/
- \be.ɡe.je\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to bégayer
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is bégayer in French?
bégayer appears about once in every 4 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).