Le Présent: Recevoir et la famille -cevoir

Recevoir ("to receive") is the model verb for a small but very useful family of -cevoir verbs that all share one conjugation template and one orthographic quirk. The template is the same three-stem alternation you already know from devoir — singular reçoi-, nous/vous stem recev-, third-person plural reçoiv-. The orthographic quirk is the cedilla: a hook under the c that is mandatory wherever c sits before o, a, or u in this paradigm. Forget the cedilla and the c sounds like /k/, turning je reçois /ʁəswa/ into the non-existent /ʁəkwa/.

This page lays out the full present-tense paradigm of recevoir, explains why the cedilla appears exactly where it does, walks through the family of -cevoir verbs (apercevoir, concevoir, décevoir, percevoir) that all follow the same template, contrasts the pattern with devoir (covered on its own page), and previews the past participle in -çu.

The paradigm — three stems, one cedilla

The three stems are:

• reçoi- in the singular (je reçois, tu reçois, il reçoit) — pronounced /ʁəswa/.
• recev- in nous/vous (nous recevons, vous recevez) — pronounced /ʁəsəv/, with a schwa.
• reçoiv- in 3pl (ils reçoivent) — pronounced /ʁəswav/.

The pattern matches devoir note for note: a /-wa/ vowel in the singular, a schwa-bearing stem in nous/vous, and a /-wav/ stem in 3pl that exposes the otherwise-silent v. If you can already say je dois → nous devons → ils doivent, you can already say je reçois → nous recevons → ils reçoivent. The skeleton is identical.

Why the cedilla — and exactly where it goes

In French spelling, the letter c sounds like /s/ before e and i (ce, ci) but like /k/ before a, o, and u (ca, co, cu). When a verb stem needs to keep the /s/ sound across a vowel change, French adds a cedilla — the little hook under the c — to override the default reading. So recev- (with /s/ before e) stays /s/-pronounced as reç- whenever the next letter is o, a, or u.

In the present indicative, this means the cedilla is mandatory in exactly three forms:

• je re*ç*ois — c before o
• tu re*ç*ois — c before o
• il re*ç*oit — c before o
• ils re*ç*oivent — c before o

And it is forbidden in the other two forms, because the c is already followed by e:

• nous recevons — c before e, no cedilla needed
• vous recevez — c before e, no cedilla needed

The cedilla is not a decorative accent. It is a phonetic instruction. Je recois without the cedilla would have to be read /ʒə ʁəkwa/ — a non-word that no native speaker would understand on first pass. Skipping it is the same kind of error as writing cot for coat in English: the spelling no longer says what you mean.

The family — same template, four useful members

Once you know recevoir, you know its whole family. Each of the following verbs conjugates the same way; only the prefix changes.

Two notes on usage:

• Apercevoir is more often used reflexively — s'apercevoir de / s'apercevoir que meaning to realize, to notice. Je m'aperçois que j'ai oublié mes clés — I realize I forgot my keys. The non-reflexive apercevoir is more visual ("catch sight of") and somewhat literary.
• Décevoir is one of the highest-frequency verbs in this family because the past participle déçu is a very common adjective: je suis déçu — I'm disappointed. The verb itself is transitive — the thing that disappoints is the subject, the person disappointed is the object.

Recevoir — beyond "to receive"

The literal meaning of recevoir is to receive a thing — a letter, a package, a phone call, a gift. But the verb extends in two important directions that English doesn't always cover with the same word.

To host / welcome people

In French, when you have guests over, the verb is recevoir. Je reçois des amis ce soir does not mean "I'm receiving friends" in any English sense — it means I have friends over tonight / I'm hosting some friends this evening. The same verb covers receiving a parcel from the postman and receiving guests for dinner.

This sense of recevoir is so common that un homme/une femme qui reçoit bien is a fixed compliment — a good host / a good entertainer.

To accept / take in (medical, academic, institutional)

A doctor receives patients (le médecin reçoit ses patients à partir de huit heures). A school admits students (l'école reçoit cinq cents élèves). A jury hears a case. In all these institutional senses, French uses recevoir where English might switch to see, admit, take in, or hear.

Comparing recevoir and devoir

The two verbs share the three-stem template — they are paradigmatic siblings. But they differ in two visible ways:

The cedilla is the single most important orthographic difference. Devoir has no c in its stem, so the cedilla question never arises. Recevoir has a c that has to stay soft across two phonetic environments, so the cedilla is mandatory in singular and 3pl. Memorize the two paradigms together — they reinforce each other once you see the parallel.

The past participle — reçu, with a cedilla

A small but important detail: the past participle of recevoir is reçu (feminine reçue, plural reçus, reçues). The cedilla stays, because c is followed by u — and u would otherwise force a /k/ reading. Without the cedilla, recu would be read /ʁəky/, not /ʁəsy/.

The same holds for the whole family: aperçu, perçu, conçu, déçu. Every past participle in the -cevoir family carries a cedilla.

The compound tenses all use avoir as the auxiliary: j'ai reçu, tu as aperçu, nous avons conçu, ils ont déçu. There is no être-conjugating verb in this family.

A note on register

Recevoir itself is everyday vocabulary — A1-level frequency. Its derivatives spread across registers:

• (everyday) recevoir (a letter, a friend), décevoir (someone)
• (slightly elevated) apercevoir (to glimpse) — in everyday speech, French often prefers voir or remarquer. J'aperçois quelqu'un sounds bookish; je vois quelqu'un is the casual default.
• (formal / administrative) percevoir (a tax, a fee, a salary), concevoir (a project, a plan)
• (reflexive — everyday) s'apercevoir de (to realize) is far more frequent than non-reflexive apercevoir in conversation.

The whole family stays grammatical and well-formed in any register; the differences are about which verb you actually pick. A learner who says j'ai aperçu mon ami when they mean j'ai vu mon ami will be understood, but they'll sound like they're writing a 19th-century novel.

Common Mistakes

Mistake 1: Forgetting the cedilla on je reçois / il reçoit / ils reçoivent.

Mistake 2: Adding a cedilla to nous recevons / vous recevez.

Mistake 3: Translating recevoir des amis as receive friends.

Mistake 4: Forgetting the cedilla on the past participle reçu.

Mistake 5: Using décevoir intransitively.

Mistake 6: Treating apercevoir as casual.

Key takeaways

The -cevoir family is small (five common members), regular within itself, and built on the same three-stem template as devoir. Once you can conjugate recevoir, you can conjugate apercevoir, percevoir, concevoir, and décevoir without learning anything new — only the prefix changes.

The cedilla is the one piece of orthographic vigilance this family demands. Its rule is mechanical: any time c meets o, a, or u in this paradigm, write ç. In the present, that means singular forms (reçois, reçoit) and the 3pl (reçoivent); in compound tenses, that means the past participle (reçu, déçu, conçu). Drop the cedilla and the word stops being French.

Pair this page with the devoir page in your study — the parallel between je dois → nous devons → ils doivent and je reçois → nous recevons → ils reçoivent is one of the cleanest demonstrations in French of how a single irregular template generates a whole family of useful verbs.