espérer
French, verb/ɛs.pe.ʁe/
espérer is spelled E-S-P-É-R-E-R (7 letters) and appears 24 times per million words in written French, the 3,248th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Espérer is a French verb meaning “to hope” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Attendre”.
What does espérer mean in English?
verb
- 1
to hope
J’espère réussir.
- 2
to hope for
J’espère un succès rapide.
- 3
to have faith, to trust (with en (“in”))
Il faut espérer.
- 4
to wait
Espere-voir un bout.
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Attendre. 2. ou (Louisiane) et (Poitevin-Saintongeais) Attendre la venue de quelqu’un. 3. Attendre les bienfaits divins. 4. Considérer l’objet de son souhait comme réalisable.
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 espérer
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- espérant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- espéré participle past
- espère first-person indicative present
- espères indicative present second-person
- espérons first-person indicative plural
- espérez indicative plural present
- espèrent indicative plural present
- espérais first-person imperfect indicative
- espérait imperfect indicative singular
- espérions first-person imperfect indicative
- espériez imperfect indicative plural
- espéraient imperfect indicative plural
- espérai first-person historic indicative
- espéras historic indicative past
- espéra historic indicative past
- espérâmes first-person historic indicative
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce espérer?
- /ɛs.pe.ʁe/
- \ɛs.pe.ʁe\
- [ɛs.pe.ʁe]
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to espérer
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is espérer in French?
espérer appears 24 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).