allonger

French

Etymology

Most likely from a- +‎ long +‎ -er, or possibly from a Vulgar Latin root *allongāre, from ad + Late Latin longāre, from Latin longus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.lɔ̃.ʒe/

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Verb

allonger

1. (transitive) to lay down
2. (transitive) to lengthen, to make longer, to extend
3. (transitive) to extend out, to stretch
4. (intransitive, of days) to lengthen
5. (reflexive) to grow, to get longer
   • 1903, Maurice Pillard Verneuil, Étude de la plante‎^[1], page 4:

     Sa tige souterraine, ou rhizome, s'allonge chaque année, portant un rameau aérien vers son extrémité.

     Its underground stem, or rhizome, elongates each year, bearing an aerial shoot near its tip.

6. (reflexive) to stretch out
7. (reflexive) to lie, to lie down

Conjugation

This is a regular -er verb, but the stem is written allonge- before endings that begin with -a- or -o- (to indicate that the -g- is a "soft" /ʒ/ and not a "hard" /ɡ/). This spelling change occurs in all verbs in -ger, such as neiger and manger.

Conjugation of allonger (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	allonger
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	allongeant /a.lɔ̃.ʒɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		allongé /a.lɔ̃.ʒe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	allonge /a.lɔ̃ʒ/	allonges /a.lɔ̃ʒ/	allonge /a.lɔ̃ʒ/	allongeons /a.lɔ̃.ʒɔ̃/	allongez /a.lɔ̃.ʒe/	allongent /a.lɔ̃ʒ/
	imperfect	allongeais /a.lɔ̃.ʒɛ/	allongeais /a.lɔ̃.ʒɛ/	allongeait /a.lɔ̃.ʒɛ/	allongions /a.lɔ̃.ʒjɔ̃/	allongiez /a.lɔ̃.ʒje/	allongeaient /a.lɔ̃.ʒɛ/
	past historic2	allongeai /a.lɔ̃.ʒe/	allongeas /a.lɔ̃.ʒa/	allongea /a.lɔ̃.ʒa/	allongeâmes /a.lɔ̃.ʒam/	allongeâtes /a.lɔ̃.ʒat/	allongèrent /a.lɔ̃.ʒɛʁ/
	future	allongerai /a.lɔ̃ʒ.ʁe/	allongeras /a.lɔ̃ʒ.ʁa/	allongera /a.lɔ̃ʒ.ʁa/	allongerons /a.lɔ̃ʒ.ʁɔ̃/	allongerez /a.lɔ̃ʒ.ʁe/	allongeront /a.lɔ̃ʒ.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	allongerais /a.lɔ̃ʒ.ʁɛ/	allongerais /a.lɔ̃ʒ.ʁɛ/	allongerait /a.lɔ̃ʒ.ʁɛ/	allongerions /a.lɔ̃.ʒə.ʁjɔ̃/	allongeriez /a.lɔ̃.ʒə.ʁje/	allongeraient /a.lɔ̃ʒ.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	allonge /a.lɔ̃ʒ/	allonges /a.lɔ̃ʒ/	allonge /a.lɔ̃ʒ/	allongions /a.lɔ̃.ʒjɔ̃/	allongiez /a.lɔ̃.ʒje/	allongent /a.lɔ̃ʒ/
	imperfect2	allongeasse /a.lɔ̃.ʒas/	allongeasses /a.lɔ̃.ʒas/	allongeât /a.lɔ̃.ʒa/	allongeassions /a.lɔ̃.ʒa.sjɔ̃/	allongeassiez /a.lɔ̃.ʒa.sje/	allongeassent /a.lɔ̃.ʒas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	allonge /a.lɔ̃ʒ/	—	allongeons /a.lɔ̃.ʒɔ̃/	allongez /a.lɔ̃.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

• allonger la sauce
• allonger le pas
• café allongé

Related terms

• allongé
• allongement
• long/longue

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• rallonge, rallongé