tendre

See also: tendré

English

Adjective

tendre (comparative more tendre, superlative most tendre)

1. Obsolete form of tender.

Verb

tendre (third-person singular simple present tendres, present participle tendring, simple past and past participle tendred)

1. Obsolete form of tender.

Noun

tendre (plural tendres)

1. (archaic) Tender feeling or fondness; affection.
   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 15, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

     You poor friendless creatures are always having some foolish tendre […]

   • 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:

     So the athletic Magnolia instantly impounded the little lieutenant, and began to rally him, in the sort of slang she delighted in, with plenty of merriment and malice upon his tendre for Miss Chattesworth, and made the gallant young gentleman blush and occasionally smile, and bow a great deal, and take some snuff.

Anagrams

• enter'd, entred, rented, tender

Catalan

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old Catalan tendre, from older tenre (with epenthesis), from Latin tener (“soft, tender”), from Proto-Indo-European *ten- (“to stretch, draw”). Compare Occitan tèndre, French tendre, Spanish tierno.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈtɛn.dɾə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈtɛn.dɾe]

• Audio (Catalonia):

  (file)

Adjective

tendre (feminine tendra, masculine and feminine plural tendres)

1. soft, tender
2. charming

Derived terms

• entendrir
• tendrement

Related terms

• tendresa

Etymology 2

Inherited from Latin tenēre, with a change in verb class.

Verb

tendre

1. (Alghero) alternative form of tenir

References

• “tendre”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], 2007 April
• “tendre”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025.
• “tendre” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “tendre” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɑ̃dʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old French tendre, from Latin tenerum, from Proto-Indo-European *ten- (“to stretch, draw”).

Adjective

tendre (plural tendres)

1. tender (soft, delicate)

Related terms

• tendresse

Etymology 2

Inherited from Old French tendre, from Latin tendere.

Verb

tendre

1. (transitive) to tighten
2. (transitive) to stretch out
3. (intransitive) to tend [with vers ‘towards’]

   tendre vers l'infini ― to tend to infinity

4. (intransitive) to strive [with vers ‘for’]
5. (reflexive) to become taut

Conjugation

Conjugation of tendre (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	tendre
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	tendant /tɑ̃.dɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		tendu /tɑ̃.dy/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	tends /tɑ̃/	tends /tɑ̃/	tend /tɑ̃/	tendons /tɑ̃.dɔ̃/	tendez /tɑ̃.de/	tendent /tɑ̃d/
	imperfect	tendais /tɑ̃.dɛ/	tendais /tɑ̃.dɛ/	tendait /tɑ̃.dɛ/	tendions /tɑ̃.djɔ̃/	tendiez /tɑ̃.dje/	tendaient /tɑ̃.dɛ/
	past historic2	tendis /tɑ̃.di/	tendis /tɑ̃.di/	tendit /tɑ̃.di/	tendîmes /tɑ̃.dim/	tendîtes /tɑ̃.dit/	tendirent /tɑ̃.diʁ/
	future	tendrai /tɑ̃.dʁe/	tendras /tɑ̃.dʁa/	tendra /tɑ̃.dʁa/	tendrons /tɑ̃.dʁɔ̃/	tendrez /tɑ̃.dʁe/	tendront /tɑ̃.dʁɔ̃/
	conditional	tendrais /tɑ̃.dʁɛ/	tendrais /tɑ̃.dʁɛ/	tendrait /tɑ̃.dʁɛ/	tendrions /tɑ̃.dʁi.jɔ̃/	tendriez /tɑ̃.dʁi.je/	tendraient /tɑ̃.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	tende /tɑ̃d/	tendes /tɑ̃d/	tende /tɑ̃d/	tendions /tɑ̃.djɔ̃/	tendiez /tɑ̃.dje/	tendent /tɑ̃d/
	imperfect2	tendisse /tɑ̃.dis/	tendisses /tɑ̃.dis/	tendît /tɑ̃.di/	tendissions /tɑ̃.di.sjɔ̃/	tendissiez /tɑ̃.di.sje/	tendissent /tɑ̃.dis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	tends /tɑ̃/	—	tendons /tɑ̃.dɔ̃/	tendez /tɑ̃.de/	—
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).

Derived terms

• hypertendre
• supertendre
• tendre la perche
• tendre l'autre joue
• tendre les bras
• tendre l'oreille
• tendre une perche
• tendu
• ultratendre

Related terms

• tente
• tension
• toise

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• redent

Middle English

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Old French tendre.

Adjective

tendre

1. tender (soft, delicate)
   • 14th c. Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales. General Prologue: 6-7.

     The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
     Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Descendants

• Scots: tender
• English: tender

Etymology 2

From Old English tynder.

Noun

tendre

1. alternative form of tinder

Norman

Etymology

From Old French tendre, from Latin tener, tenerum.

Adjective

tendre m or f

1. (Jersey) tender

Old French

Etymology 1

From Latin tenerum, accusative of tener.

Adjective

tendre m (oblique and nominative feminine singular tendre)

1. tender (soft, delicate)

Etymology 2

From Latin tendere.

Verb

tendre

1. (transitive) to stretch

Conjugation

This verb conjugates as a third-group verb. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.

    Conjugation of tendre (see also Appendix:Old French verbs)

		simple			compound
infinitive		tendre			avoir tendu
gerund		en tendant			gerund of avoir + past participle
present participle		tendant
past participle		tendu
person		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		jo	tu	il	nos	vos	il
simple tenses	present	tent	tenz	tent	tendons	tendez	tendent
	imperfect	tendoie, tendeie	tendoies, tendeies	tendoit, tendeit	tendiiens, tendiens	tendiiez, tendiez	tendoient, tendeient
	preterite	tendi	tendis	tendié	tendimes	tendistes	tendierent
	future	tendrai	tendras	tendra	tendrons	tendroiz, tendreiz, tendrez	tendront
	conditional	tendroie, tendreie	tendroies, tendreies	tendroit, tendreit	tendriiens, tendriens	tendriiez, tendriez	tendroient, tendreient
compound tenses	present perfect	present tense of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect tense of avoir + past participle
	past anterior	preterite tense of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future tense of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional tense of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que jo	que tu	qu’il	que nos	que vos	qu’il
simple tenses	present	tende	tendes	tende	tendons	tendez	tendent
	imperfect	tendisse	tendisses	tendist	tendissons, tendissiens	tendissoiz, tendissez, tendissiez	tendissent
compound tenses	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nos	vos	–
		—	tent	—	tendons	tendez	—

Descendants

• French: tendre
• Norman: tendre