apprendre

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French apprendre, from Old French aprendre, aprandre, inherited from Latin apprendere, contracted form of apprehendere, present active infinitive of apprehendō. Doublet of appréhender, which was borrowed.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.pʁɑ̃dʁ/

• audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑ̃dʁ

Verb

apprendre

1. to learn

   Grâce à vous, j’en apprends tous les jours.

   Thanks to you, I learn every day.

2. to teach

   Synonyms: enseigner, instruire

   Aujourd’hui je vais vous apprendre quelques mots hawaïens.

   Today I am going to teach you some Hawaiian words.

   • 1837, Louis Viardot, L’Ingénieux Hidalgo Don Quichotte de la Manche‎^{fr.Wikisource}, translation of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Volume I, Chapter II:

     À ces sottises, il en ajoutait cent autres, toutes à la manière de celles que ses livres lui avaient apprises, imitant de son mieux leur langage.

     To these foolish sayings, he added a hundred others, all in the manner of those that his books had taught him, imitating to the best of his ability their language.

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 apprenn- before mute 'e' and the stem appren- elsewhere.
• In the past participle, and in the past historic and the imperfect subjunctive, its conjugation resembles that of mettre.

Derived terms

• apprenable
• apprendre par cœur ("to memorize")
• ce n’est pas à un vieux singe qu’on apprend à faire des grimaces
• on en apprend tous les jours

Related terms

• apprentissage
• prendre

Paronyms

• appendre

Further reading

• “apprendre”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Middle French

Alternative forms

• aprendre

Etymology

From Old French aprendre, aprandre.

Verb

apprendre

1. to learn

Descendants

• French: apprendre

Norman

Etymology

From Old French aprandre, aprendre, from Latin apprendere, variant of apprehendere, present active infinitive of apprehendō (“grasp, understand, comprehend”).

Verb

apprendre

1. (Guernsey, Jersey) to learn
   • 1903, Edgar MacCulloch, “Proverbs, Weather Sayings, etc.”, in Guernsey Folk Lore‎, page 513:

     Apprins au ber, dure jusqu'au ver.

     What is learnt in the cradle goes with one to the grave.

2. (Jersey) to teach

   Synonym: ensîngni

Derived terms

• apprendre par tchoeu (“to learn by heart”)

Related terms

• êtudier (“to study”)