Welcome back! In today’s blog, we’re taking a detailed look at the French verb régler.
Before we begin, we recommend taking a listen to the audio clip to make sure you know how to pronounce it:
With regards to the translation, régler can mean to adjust, to settle (up), to set, to sort out, to solve, and to rule (a line). It might seem like a lot of options, but when our word of the week has more than one possible translation, we’ll show you examples in different contexts to help you understand.
The grammar is generally quite simple, as régler follows most of the regular conjugation patterns for -er verbs. However, as it’s part of a small group of verbs with an accent change in the present tense, you will need to learn some extra rules for certain cases: these are set out in our online conjugation table for régler.
Now we’re ready to see régler in action:
régler la note to settle the bill; to pay the tab
régler un compte to settle an account; to sort something out
régler en espèces to pay in cash/coins
régler le son to adjust the volume
papier réglé ruled paper
J’aimerais bien régler ce problème aujourd’hui. I would really like to solve this problem today.
Il faut que tu règles ton écran avant de continuer. You need to adjust your screen before continuing.
Est-ce tu as réglé le four sur 180 °C ? Did you set the oven to 180 °C?
Mes parents ne règlent jamais les factures avant le délai de paiement. My parents never pay their bills before the due date.
Si on avait assez de l’argent, on réglerait cette dispute vite fait. If we had enough money, we would resolve this dispute right away.
While we have been studying the verb régler, it’s worth noting that one of the verb conjugations has the exact same spelling as a feminine noun.
je/il/elle/on règle (present tense)
une règle a rule; a ruler
Il l’a souligné avec une règle. He underlined it with a ruler.
Vous devez suivre cette règle. You need to follow this rule.
Est-ce que tu peux nous apprendre les règles principales ? Can you teach us the main rules?
And just as another bonus example, this also happens with another present tense conjugation:
tu règles (present tense)
les règles period (menstruation)
Je n’ai pas envie de sortir, j’ai mes règles. I don’t feel like going out, I have my period.
Thank you for reading our blog! We hope that the information has helped you sort out any problems you had with the verb régler! See you next week.
Written by Holly Tarbet, freelance copywriter and editor.
All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Collins, or its parent company, HarperCollins.
