méprendre

French

Etymology

From Old French mesprendre. Compare to English misapprehend. Corresponding to mé- +‎ prendre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /me.pʁɑ̃dʁ/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

méprendre

1. (reflexive, ~ sur) to mistake (to confuse someone for another)
2. to make a mistake
3. to misunderstand

Conjugation

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		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
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: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Synonyms

• se tromper

Derived terms

• à s’y méprendre

Related terms

• méprise

Further reading

• “méprendre”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.