-er
French, suffix/e/
-er is spelled E-R (2 letters) and appears 9.1 times per million words in written French, the 7,166th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). -er is a French masculine suffix meaning “forms infinitives of first-conjugation verbs” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Suffixe verbal, en général indiquant un verbe du premier groupe à l’infinitif”.
What does -er mean in English?
suffix
- 1
forms infinitives of first-conjugation verbs
aimer
suffix
- 1
masculineforms nouns indicating the person who exercises a particular activity
boulanger
interfix
- 1
used before various noun-forming suffixes
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
suffix: 1. Suffixe verbal, en général indiquant un verbe du premier groupe à l’infinitif. 2. Forme un verbe à partir d’un nom.
suffix: 1. Suffixe nominal indiquant la personne qui exerce une activité particulière.
suffix: 1. Écrit en supérieur, sert à composer l’abréviation 1ᵉʳ.
noun: 1. Dix-huitième lettre de l’alphabet cyrillique, р. 2. Trentième lettre de l’alphabet glagolitique, Ⱏ.
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 -er
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- ə first-person indicative present
- present indicative of avoir + past participle indicative multiword-construction perfect
- imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle indicative multiword-construction pluperfect
- past historic of avoir + past participle anterior indicative multiword-construction
- future of avoir + past participle future indicative multiword-construction
- conditional of avoir + past participle conditional multiword-construction perfect
- present subjunctive of avoir + past participle multiword-construction past subjunctive
- imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle multiword-construction pluperfect subjunctive
- ers plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce -er?
- /e/
- \e\
- \ɛʁ\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to -er
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is -er in French?
-er appears 9.1 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).