Inherited from Middle French apprendre, from Old French aprendre, aprandre, inherited from Latin apprendere, contracted form of apprehendere. Doublet of appréhender, which was borrowed.
apprendre
This verb is conjugated on the model of prendre. That means it is quite irregular, with the following patterns:
infinitive | simple | apprendre | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
present participle or gerund1 | simple | apprenant /a.pʁə.nɑ̃/ | |||||
compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
past participle | appris /a.pʁi/ | ||||||
singular | plural | ||||||
first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
(simple tenses) |
present | apprends /a.pʁɑ̃/ |
apprends /a.pʁɑ̃/ |
apprend /a.pʁɑ̃/ |
apprenons /a.pʁə.nɔ̃/ |
apprenez /a.pʁə.ne/ |
apprennent /a.pʁɛn/ |
imperfect | apprenais /a.pʁə.nɛ/ |
apprenais /a.pʁə.nɛ/ |
apprenait /a.pʁə.nɛ/ |
apprenions /a.pʁə.njɔ̃/ |
appreniez /a.pʁə.nje/ |
apprenaient /a.pʁə.nɛ/ | |
past historic2 | appris /a.pʁi/ |
appris /a.pʁi/ |
apprit /a.pʁi/ |
apprîmes /a.pʁim/ |
apprîtes /a.pʁit/ |
apprirent /a.pʁiʁ/ | |
future | apprendrai /a.pʁɑ̃.dʁe/ |
apprendras /a.pʁɑ̃.dʁa/ |
apprendra /a.pʁɑ̃.dʁa/ |
apprendrons /a.pʁɑ̃.dʁɔ̃/ |
apprendrez /a.pʁɑ̃.dʁe/ |
apprendront /a.pʁɑ̃.dʁɔ̃/ | |
conditional | apprendrais /a.pʁɑ̃.dʁɛ/ |
apprendrais /a.pʁɑ̃.dʁɛ/ |
apprendrait /a.pʁɑ̃.dʁɛ/ |
apprendrions /a.pʁɑ̃.dʁi.jɔ̃/ |
apprendriez /a.pʁɑ̃.dʁi.je/ |
apprendraient /a.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 | apprenne /a.pʁɛn/ |
apprennes /a.pʁɛn/ |
apprenne /a.pʁɛn/ |
apprenions /a.pʁə.njɔ̃/ |
appreniez /a.pʁə.nje/ |
apprennent /a.pʁɛn/ |
imperfect2 | apprisse /a.pʁis/ |
apprisses /a.pʁis/ |
apprît /a.pʁi/ |
apprissions /a.pʁi.sjɔ̃/ |
apprissiez /a.pʁi.sje/ |
apprissent /a.pʁis/ | |
(compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
imperative | – | – | – | ||||
simple | — | apprends /a.pʁɑ̃/ |
— | apprenons /a.pʁə.nɔ̃/ |
apprenez /a.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 , Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). |
From Old French aprendre, aprandre.
apprendre
From Old French aprandre, aprendre, from Latin apprendere, variant of apprehendere (“grasp, understand, comprehend”).
apprendre