From Old French mesprendre. Compare to English misapprehend. Corresponding to mé- + prendre.
méprendre
This verb is conjugated on the model of prendre. That means it is quite irregular, with the following patterns:
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 , Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). |