Jeter: Full Verb Reference

Jeter is the verb to throw, to cast, to throw away. Its conjugation is regular -er in stem and endings, with one targeted spelling adjustment: the single t at the end of the stem (jet-) doubles to tt whenever the next syllable contains a silent e. Je jette, with two t's. Nous jetons, with one. The doubling is a stress-rewriting device — exactly parallel to appeler's doubling of l, and using the same logic as acheter's grave accent.

Why? In Old French, the stem-internal e of jeter was a schwa, and the doubled tt was a way of marking that the previous e should be stressed and pronounced as the open /ɛ/. Modern French inherited the spelling — the tt is purely orthographic. The contrast: nous jetons /ʒə.tɔ̃/ — schwa or silent stem e, single t; je jette /ʒɛt/ — stressed open e, double tt.

The -eter doubling pattern applies to most -eter verbs: jeter, rejeter, projeter, feuilleter, étiqueter, cacheter, breveter, hoqueter, voleter. There is one famous exception: acheter, which takes the grave-accent pattern instead (j'achète, not j'achette). A handful of other -eter verbs (haleter, crocheter, racheter, becqueter) also take the grave accent. You must memorize which pattern each verb uses; jeter is the canonical doubler, acheter is the canonical accent-taker.

The verb itself is high-frequency, transitive (jeter quelque chose) and reflexive (se jeter — to throw oneself / to flow into). It's the standard verb for throwing away in everyday French (jeter à la poubelle), and it pivots into a series of essential idioms: jeter un coup d'œil (have a look), jeter de l'huile sur le feu (add fuel to the fire), se jeter à l'eau (take the plunge). The compound rejeter covers both to throw back and to reject; projeter covers to project and to plan. This page covers everything.

The simple tenses

These are the tenses formed without an auxiliary. Jeter is regular -er in endings, with the -eter doubling rule kicking in wherever the next syllable's e falls silent.

Présent de l'indicatif

Standard -er endings on the jet- stem, with the doubled tt in 1sg, 2sg, 3sg, and 3pl — but not in 1pl or 2pl, where the next-syllable e is pronounced.

The 1sg, 2sg, 3sg, and 3pl all sound identical (/ʒɛt/) — the silent endings -e, -es, -e, -ent don't add a syllable, so the stem e is stressed and the doubled tt signals that stress. In nous jetons and vous jetez, the e of the ending takes the stress, so the stem e falls silent. Single t — no doubling needed.

Imparfait

The imparfait is built on the 1pl present stem jet- (with single t). All six imparfait forms therefore have a single t — the e of the imparfait endings (-ais, -ait, -aient, -ions, -iez) is always pronounced, which keeps the stem e silent.

Like with appeler, the imparfait of jeter is the cleanest tense: single t across all six persons.

Passé simple (literary)

Standard 1st-conjugation passé simple endings -ai, -as, -a, -âmes, -âtes, -èrent. Built on the jet- stem — single t throughout, because all endings start with a vowel that gets pronounced.

Futur simple

This is where the doubling pays off most visibly. The futur stem is jetter- — built from the infinitive but with the doubled tt throughout all six persons. Same logic as appeler's appeller-: the e of the futur ending is silent, so the stem e must be stressed, which the doubling marks orthographically.

This contrasts sharply with the imparfait, where every person has single t. In the futur, every person has double tt.

Conditionnel présent

Same logic as the futur — same jetter- stem with double tt throughout, plus imparfait endings.

Subjonctif présent

Standard subjunctive endings on the present-tense stems. Same split as the present indicative: double tt in 1sg, 2sg, 3sg, 3pl (silent endings); single t in 1pl, 2pl (pronounced i-endings).

The 1pl jetions and 2pl jetiez are spelled identically to the imparfait — the single t and the double t split mirrors the present-indicative split exactly.

Impératif

Three forms. The tu imperative drops the -s — jette, not jettes (still with double tt).

In imperative + reflexive pronoun + hyphen constructions, the imperative form keeps the doubled tt: jette-toi à l'eau (take the plunge — literally "throw yourself into the water").

Participles and gérondif

• Participe passé: jeté (regular -é; single t)
• Participe présent: jetant (single t — the -ant ending is pronounced)
• Gérondif: en jetant

The participle jeté shows past-participle agreement when used with avoir and a preceding direct object: les bouteilles que j'ai jetées — feminine plural agreement jetées.

The compound tenses

Jeter uses avoir as its auxiliary in all compound tenses. The reflexive se jeter uses être — see below. The participle jeté has a single t.

Passé composé

avoir (présent) + jeté

Plus-que-parfait

avoir (imparfait) + jeté

Futur antérieur

avoir (futur) + jeté

Conditionnel passé

avoir (conditionnel) + jeté

Subjonctif passé

avoir (subjonctif) + jeté

The major uses

1. Jeter + direct object — to throw (something)

The default transitive use, covering both literal throwing (a ball, a stone, a coin) and figurative.

2. Jeter à la poubelle / jeter aux ordures — to throw away

This is the most common everyday use of jeter: throwing things into the trash. The destination is marked with à la poubelle (in the trash can) or, more formally, aux ordures (in the garbage).

In environmental and eco-conscious French, the verb recycler (to recycle) is increasingly used as a moral counterweight to jeter — jeter c'est polluer, recycler c'est respecter is a common public-service slogan.

3. Jeter un coup d'œil / un œil — to take a look

This is one of the most-used jeter idioms. Literally "to throw a glance," it means to have a quick look.

The shorter version jeter un œil is more colloquial; jeter un coup d'œil is register-neutral. Both are extremely frequent in everyday speech.

4. Se jeter — to throw oneself / to flow into

The reflexive se jeter has three main uses:

a) Throwing oneself physically

b) Diving into an activity (figurative)

c) Rivers flowing into seas / lakes

This is a fixed French idiom: rivers don't flow into the sea, they throw themselves (se jeter) into it.

This is the standard verb in French geography for the river-meets-sea relationship. La Seine se jette dans la Manche — the Seine throws itself into the Channel — feels poetic in literal translation, but is utterly neutral in French.

5. Se jeter à l'eau — to take the plunge

The fixed expression se jeter à l'eau literally means to throw oneself into the water — and figuratively, to take the plunge, to commit to a difficult or scary decision.

In compound tenses, se jeter uses être, with participle agreement: elle s'est jetée à l'eau (she took the plunge — feminine agreement on jetée).

High-frequency jeter idioms

• jeter de l'huile sur le feu — to add fuel to the fire (literally: oil on the fire)
• jeter l'éponge — to throw in the towel (literally: the sponge — French uses sponge, English uses towel)
• jeter un sort — to cast a spell
• jeter le bébé avec l'eau du bain — to throw the baby out with the bathwater
• jeter l'argent par les fenêtres — to throw money out the window (waste it)
• jeter le doute — to cast doubt
• jeter un froid — to cast a chill (make the atmosphere uncomfortable)
• jeter la pierre à quelqu'un — to cast the first stone at someone
• jeter aux oubliettes — to consign to oblivion
• à jeter — to be thrown out, disposable (used as an adjective: des assiettes à jeter = disposable plates)
• bon à jeter — fit only to throw out, junk

The compounds: rejeter and projeter

Two derived verbs follow the same conjugation pattern as jeter:

Rejeter — to throw back, to reject

Rejeter covers both literal throwing back (a fish into water, a ball back to a child) and figurative rejecting (a proposal, an idea, a person). High-frequency in administrative and political language for "rejecting" applications, dossiers, motions.

The conjugation is identical to jeter: je rejette, nous rejetons, je rejetterai, etc.

Projeter — to project, to plan, to throw forward

Projeter means to project (a film, an image, an idea onto a screen) and to plan (a future event). It also has a literal sense of to throw forward (debris, mud).

The conjugation is identical to jeter: je projette, nous projetons, je projetterai, etc.

The -eter family (doubling type)

Most -eter verbs follow the doubling rule. Here's the high-frequency core:

The pattern is identical: double tt in 1sg/2sg/3sg/3pl present, throughout futur and conditionnel; single t in 1pl/2pl present and throughout the imparfait. If you can conjugate jeter, you can conjugate every verb in this family.

The famous exceptions taking grave accent

A small number of -eter verbs take the grave-accent pattern instead of the doubling pattern. The most famous and most-used is acheter:

For these, the spelling is j'achète, je rachète, je halète — with a grave accent and single t. Not j'achette. This is the most-tested spelling distinction in French school exams.

The 1990 spelling reform tried to standardize all -eter verbs on the grave-accent pattern (so theoretically je jète), but in practice native speakers still overwhelmingly use the traditional doubling for jeter, rejeter, projeter, feuilleter, etc. Stick with the traditional spellings.

Comparison with English

Three friction points:

1. Double-t in writing. English has no equivalent rule. Forgetting one of the t's (je jete instead of je jette) is a stigmatized spelling error. Even worse: writing je jeterai instead of je jetterai in the futur — the doubling must be present in every futur and conditionnel form.

2. No phrasal verbs for throw away / throw out / throw up. English uses particles (throw away, throw out, throw up, throw on, throw in). French uses different verbs or fixed expressions: jeter à la poubelle (throw away), vomir (throw up — anatomical), enfiler (throw on — clothing), renoncer (throw in the towel — figurative). There's no productive jeter

   • particle system.

3. Rivers throwing themselves. English rivers flow into the sea; French rivers throw themselves (se jettent) into it. The mental image is more dramatic in French. La Seine se jette dans la Manche is the standard, neutral expression — not poetic, not literary, just the way it's said.

Common Mistakes

Mistake 1: Forgetting the double t in singular forms.

Mistake 2: Confusing jeter (doubling) with acheter (grave accent).

Mistake 3: Single t in futur or conditionnel.

Mistake 4: Adding double t to 1pl/2pl present.

Mistake 5: Using flow instead of se jeter for rivers.

Key takeaways

Jeter is a regular -er verb meaning to throw, to throw away. It uses avoir in all compound tenses (j'ai jeté); the reflexive se jeter uses être (elle s'est jetée à l'eau). The conjugation contains exactly one quirk: the -eter doubling rule, which doubles the stem-final t before any silent ending. This affects 1sg/2sg/3sg/3pl present (je jette, tu jettes, il jette, ils jettent), the entire futur (je jetterai, tu jetteras, il jettera, nous jetterons, vous jetterez, ils jetteront), the entire conditionnel (je jetterais, etc.), and the same singular + 3pl in the subjunctive. The 1pl/2pl present forms (nous jetons, vous jetez), the entire imparfait (je jetais, etc.), and the participle (jeté) carry single t.

The signature use is figurative throwing: jeter un coup d'œil (have a look — high-frequency idiom), jeter à la poubelle (throw away — the everyday expression), jeter de l'huile sur le feu (add fuel to the fire), jeter l'éponge (throw in the towel). The reflexive se jeter covers literal throwing-of-self (il s'est jeté dans la piscine), figurative diving-into-an-activity (se jeter dans le travail), and — uniquely — the river-into-sea relationship (la Seine se jette dans la Manche).

The doubling pattern applies to most -eter verbs: jeter, rejeter, projeter, feuilleter, étiqueter, cacheter, breveter. The famous exception is acheter (and a small group: racheter, haleter, crocheter), which take the grave-accent pattern instead. Master jeter and you have the template for the -eter doubling family — just remember that acheter breaks the rule.