méprendre
French
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Old French mesprendre. Compare to English misapprehend. Corresponding to mé- + prendre.
Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): /me.pʁɑ̃dʁ/
Audio (France (Lyon)): (file) Audio (France (Lyon)): (file) Audio (France (Somain)): (file)
Verb
[edit]méprendre
- (reflexive) to mistake [with sur] (to confuse someone for another)
- to make a mistake
- 1857, Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary […][1], Paris: Michel Lévy Frères:
- Comment donc avait-elle fait (elle qui était si intelligente!) pour se méprendre encore une fois?
- How was it that she—she, who was so intelligent—could have allowed herself to be deceived again?
- to misunderstand
Conjugation
[edit]This verb is conjugated on the model of prendre. That means it is quite irregular, with the following patterns:
- In the infinitive, in the singular forms of the present indicative, and in the future and the conditional, it is conjugated like rendre, perdre, etc. (sometimes called the regular -re verbs).
- In the plural forms of the present indicative and imperative, in the imperfect indicative, in the present subjunctive, and in the present participle, it is conjugated like appeler or jeter, using the stem méprenn- before mute 'e' and the stem mépren- elsewhere.
- In the past participle, and in the past historic and the imperfect subjunctive, its conjugation resembles that of mettre.
Conjugation of méprendre (see also Appendix:French verbs)
| infinitive | simple | méprendre | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | méprenant /me.pʁə.nɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | mépris /me.pʁi/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) |
present | méprends /me.pʁɑ̃/ |
méprends /me.pʁɑ̃/ |
méprend /me.pʁɑ̃/ |
méprenons /me.pʁə.nɔ̃/ |
méprenez /me.pʁə.ne/ |
méprennent /me.pʁɛn/ |
| imperfect | méprenais /me.pʁə.nɛ/ |
méprenais /me.pʁə.nɛ/ |
méprenait /me.pʁə.nɛ/ |
méprenions /me.pʁə.njɔ̃/ |
mépreniez /me.pʁə.nje/ |
méprenaient /me.pʁə.nɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | mépris /me.pʁi/ |
mépris /me.pʁi/ |
méprit /me.pʁi/ |
méprîmes /me.pʁim/ |
méprîtes /me.pʁit/ |
méprirent /me.pʁiʁ/ | |
| future | méprendrai /me.pʁɑ̃.dʁe/ |
méprendras /me.pʁɑ̃.dʁa/ |
méprendra /me.pʁɑ̃.dʁa/ |
méprendrons /me.pʁɑ̃.dʁɔ̃/ |
méprendrez /me.pʁɑ̃.dʁe/ |
méprendront /me.pʁɑ̃.dʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | méprendrais /me.pʁɑ̃.dʁɛ/ |
méprendrais /me.pʁɑ̃.dʁɛ/ |
méprendrait /me.pʁɑ̃.dʁɛ/ |
méprendrions /me.pʁɑ̃.dʁi.jɔ̃/ |
méprendriez /me.pʁɑ̃.dʁi.je/ |
méprendraient /me.pʁɑ̃.dʁɛ/ | |
| (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 | méprenne /me.pʁɛn/ |
méprennes /me.pʁɛn/ |
méprenne /me.pʁɛn/ |
méprenions /me.pʁə.njɔ̃/ |
mépreniez /me.pʁə.nje/ |
méprennent /me.pʁɛn/ |
| imperfect2 | méprisse /me.pʁis/ |
méprisses /me.pʁis/ |
méprît /me.pʁi/ |
méprissions /me.pʁi.sjɔ̃/ |
méprissiez /me.pʁi.sje/ |
méprissent /me.pʁis/ | |
| (compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | méprends /me.pʁɑ̃/ |
— | méprenons /me.pʁə.nɔ̃/ |
méprenez /me.pʁə.ne/ |
— | |
| 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:
(Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). | |||||||
Synonyms
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Further reading
[edit]- “méprendre”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012