surnager

French

Etymology

From sur- +‎ nager.

Pronunciation

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Verb

surnager

1. to stay afloat
2. to keep up, to make it

Conjugation

This is a regular -er verb, but the stem is written surnage- 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 surnager (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	surnager
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	surnageant /syʁ.na.ʒɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		surnagé /syʁ.na.ʒe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	surnage /syʁ.naʒ/	surnages /syʁ.naʒ/	surnage /syʁ.naʒ/	surnageons /syʁ.na.ʒɔ̃/	surnagez /syʁ.na.ʒe/	surnagent /syʁ.naʒ/
	imperfect	surnageais /syʁ.na.ʒɛ/	surnageais /syʁ.na.ʒɛ/	surnageait /syʁ.na.ʒɛ/	surnagions /syʁ.na.ʒjɔ̃/	surnagiez /syʁ.na.ʒje/	surnageaient /syʁ.na.ʒɛ/
	past historic2	surnageai /syʁ.na.ʒe/	surnageas /syʁ.na.ʒa/	surnagea /syʁ.na.ʒa/	surnageâmes /syʁ.na.ʒam/	surnageâtes /syʁ.na.ʒat/	surnagèrent /syʁ.na.ʒɛʁ/
	future	surnagerai /syʁ.naʒ.ʁe/	surnageras /syʁ.naʒ.ʁa/	surnagera /syʁ.naʒ.ʁa/	surnagerons /syʁ.naʒ.ʁɔ̃/	surnagerez /syʁ.naʒ.ʁe/	surnageront /syʁ.naʒ.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	surnagerais /syʁ.naʒ.ʁɛ/	surnagerais /syʁ.naʒ.ʁɛ/	surnagerait /syʁ.naʒ.ʁɛ/	surnagerions /syʁ.na.ʒə.ʁjɔ̃/	surnageriez /syʁ.na.ʒə.ʁje/	surnageraient /syʁ.naʒ.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	surnage /syʁ.naʒ/	surnages /syʁ.naʒ/	surnage /syʁ.naʒ/	surnagions /syʁ.na.ʒjɔ̃/	surnagiez /syʁ.na.ʒje/	surnagent /syʁ.naʒ/
	imperfect2	surnageasse /syʁ.na.ʒas/	surnageasses /syʁ.na.ʒas/	surnageât /syʁ.na.ʒa/	surnageassions /syʁ.na.ʒa.sjɔ̃/	surnageassiez /syʁ.na.ʒa.sje/	surnageassent /syʁ.na.ʒas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	surnage /syʁ.naʒ/	—	surnageons /syʁ.na.ʒɔ̃/	surnagez /syʁ.na.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).

Further reading

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