Verbs that end in -cer, like lancer, have a spelling change before endings that begin with the hard vowels a or o. Because c followed by a or o would make a hard c sound (like in cold), the c has to change to ç (c with a cedilla) to keep the c soft (as in cell).
In the present tense and the imperative, this c > ç spelling change is found only in the nous conjugation: lançons. It is needed in the present participle, lançant, but not the past participle, lancé. And it occurs in the following tenses/moods:
- Imperfect - singular conjugations plus the third person plural
- Passé simple - all conjugations except the third person plural
- Imperfect subjunctive - all conjugations
The table below summarizes just the spelling change conjugations, or you can see lancer conjugated in all tenses.
All verbs that end in -cer undergo this spelling change, including
annoncer to announce
avancer to advance
commencer to begin
dénoncer to denounce
divorcer to divorce
effacer to erase
lancer to throw
menacer to threaten
placer to put
prononcer to pronounce
remplacer to replace
renoncer to renounce
| Present | Imperfect | Passé simple | Imperfect subjunctive | Participles | ||||||
| je | lance | lançais | lançai | lançasse | ||||||
| tu | lances | lançais | lanças | lançasses | Present | |||||
| il | lance | lançait | lança | lançât | lançant | |||||
| nous | lançons | lancions | lançâmes | lançassions | ||||||
| vous | lancez | lanciez | lançâtes | lançassiez | Past | |||||
| ils | lancent | lançaient | lancèrent | lançassent | lancé | |||||
