French grammar · Beginner
Prendre in French: Conjugation, Meanings, and the Traps
Prendre means to take, but French uses it far more widely than English does: you prendre a train, a coffee, a decision, and a photograph. Its stem shifts three ways as you conjugate it (je prends, nous prenons, ils prennent), and every verb built on it, from apprendre to comprendre, follows the same pattern.
Je prends le train de sept heures.
I'm taking the seven o'clock train.
What it is
Prendre is the verb of acquiring: you reach out and something becomes yours, at least for a moment. That covers picking an object up, boarding a train, ordering a coffee, and settling on a decision, which is why prendre turns up in so many everyday sentences where English reaches for a different verb entirely.
Je prends un café, elle prend le métro, ils ont pris une décision. — I'm having a coffee, she takes the metro, they made a decision.
How to spot it
Watch the stem rather than the ending. Prendre has one stem for the singular, another for nous and vous, a doubled one for ils, and a completely different one in the past participle.
- Je prends mon manteau. — I'm getting my coat. (pren + d)
- Nous prenons le bus. — We take the bus. (pren-)
- Ils prennent leur temps. — They're taking their time. (prenn-)
- Elle a pris la clé. — She took the key. (past participle pris)
The d only appears in the singular of the present: je prends, tu prends, il prend. It disappears the moment you reach nous prenons.
Prendre Quick Reference
What prendre covers that English take does not
| French | English | Why it is prendre |
|---|---|---|
| prendre le train | to catch the train | you board it, so you take it |
| prendre un café | to have a coffee | ordering and consuming are both prendre |
| prendre une décision | to make a decision | the decision is something you seize |
| prendre une photo | to take a photo | one of the few literal matches |
| prendre rendez-vous | to make an appointment | no article: a fixed phrase |
| prendre du poids | to put on weight | the body acquires it |
| Ça prend deux heures. | It takes two hours. | duration is something an action takes up |
Common Prendre Examples in French
Prendre across the situations you will meet it in:
Picking Something Up
- Prends ton parapluie, il pleut.
- Take your umbrella, it's raining.
- Il a pris le livre sur l'étagère.
- He took the book off the shelf.
- Ne prends pas mes affaires.
- Don't take my things.
- Elle a pris ma main.
- She took my hand.
This is the literal sense, and the one that overlaps with English take most cleanly.
Transport
- Je prends le métro tous les matins.
- I take the metro every morning.
- On prend l'avion à six heures.
- We're catching the plane at six.
- Prenons l'ascenseur.
- Let's take the lift.
- Tu prends la première rue à droite.
- You take the first street on the right.
Transport you board takes prendre with the definite article: le train, le bus, l'avion.
Food and Drink
- Qu'est-ce que tu prends ?
- What are you having?
- Je prendrai un verre de vin.
- I'll have a glass of wine.
- On prend le petit déjeuner à huit heures.
- We have breakfast at eight.
- Elle ne prend jamais de dessert.
- She never has dessert.
In a café or restaurant, prendre is the normal verb for both ordering and consuming. Avoir un café would sound like owning one.
Abstract Things You Take
- Il a pris une décision difficile.
- He made a difficult decision.
- J'ai pris rendez-vous chez le dentiste.
- I made an appointment at the dentist's.
- Prends des notes pendant le cours.
- Take notes during the lesson.
- Elle a pris l'habitude de courir le matin.
- She's got into the habit of running in the morning.
Decisions, appointments, habits, risks, and holidays are all taken in French, never made.
How Prendre Works
One irregular verb, three stems, and a handful of meaning boundaries that decide whether prendre is the right verb at all.
Three Stems, Not One
The singular present keeps the d of the infinitive (prends, prends, prend), nous and vous drop it (prenons, prenez), and ils doubles the n (prennent). The past participle abandons the pattern entirely: pris.
Je prends, nous prenons, ils prennent, j'ai pris.
I take, we take, they take, I took.
prend- / pren- / prenn- / pris.
Prendre Acquires, It Does Not Transport
If you are taking a person or a thing from one place to another, French uses emmener, amener, apporter, or emporter instead. Prendre stops at the moment of acquisition.
J'emmène les enfants au parc.
I'm taking the children to the park.
Moving someone → emmener, not prendre.
Duration Needs a Subject Like Ça
To say how long something takes, French makes the task the subject: ça prend, le trajet prend. Add me, te, or lui to say who it takes that long for.
Ça me prend vingt minutes à pied.
It takes me twenty minutes on foot.
Ça (me) prend + time.
An Exam Is Passed, Not Taken
Prendre un examen is a direct translation that French does not use. You passer an exam to sit it, and réussir it to pass it. Prendre would suggest physically removing the paper.
J'ai passé mon examen ce matin.
I took my exam this morning.
passer = sit, réussir = pass.
Every Compound Inherits the Whole Pattern
Apprendre, comprendre, reprendre, surprendre, and entreprendre conjugate exactly like prendre, down to the past participle in -pris. Learn one and you have learned six.
Nous n'avons pas compris la question.
We didn't understand the question.
comprendre → compris, apprendre → appris.
Common Mistakes with Prendre
Incorrect: Je prends ma sœur à l'aéroport. — I'm taking my sister to the airport.
Correct: J'emmène ma sœur à l'aéroport. — I'm taking my sister to the airport.
Prendre cannot mean conveying a person somewhere. With a destination and a human passenger, French needs emmener or amener.
Incorrect: Ils prenent le bus. — They take the bus.
Correct: Ils prennent le bus. — They take the bus.
The third person plural doubles the n. Prenent looks like a regular pattern, but prendre is not regular here, and the doubled n changes the vowel sound too.
Incorrect: J'ai pris un examen hier. — I took an exam yesterday.
Correct: J'ai passé un examen hier. — I took an exam yesterday.
Sitting an exam is passer un examen. Prendre un examen sounds like you removed the paper from the room, and réussir is the verb for actually passing.
Incorrect: Ça prend moi une heure. — It takes me an hour.
Correct: Ça me prend une heure. — It takes me an hour.
The person affected is an object pronoun and sits in front of the verb, not after it. Moi is a stressed pronoun and cannot fill that slot.
Prendre Conjugated
The stem is what changes from tense to tense, so it helps to see the whole verb at once rather than one tense at a time.
The Four Everyday Tenses
The present is where the irregularity lives. The imperfect is built on the nous stem, and the future and conditional both use the full infinitive minus its final e.
| Pronoun | Présent | Passé composé | Imparfait | Futur |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| je / j' | prends | ai pris | prenais | prendrai |
| tu | prends | as pris | prenais | prendras |
| il / elle / on | prend | a pris | prenait | prendra |
| nous | prenons | avons pris | prenions | prendrons |
| vous | prenez | avez pris | preniez | prendrez |
| ils / elles | prennent | ont pris | prenaient | prendront |
Je prends and tu prends are spelled differently from il prend but sound identical, so the written form is the only place the difference shows.
Subjunctive and Conditional
The subjunctive reuses the two present stems: prenn- in the singular and third person plural, pren- for nous and vous. The conditional simply swaps the future endings for imperfect ones.
| Pronoun | Subjonctif | Conditionnel |
|---|---|---|
| que je | prenne | prendrais |
| que tu | prennes | prendrais |
| qu'il / qu'elle / qu'on | prenne | prendrait |
| que nous | prenions | prendrions |
| que vous | preniez | prendriez |
| qu'ils / qu'elles | prennent | prendraient |
Il faut que tu prennes des vitamines is the shape you will meet most often: prendre after il faut que.
The Compounds, in the Present
Apprendre, comprendre, and reprendre are prendre with a prefix, and nothing about the conjugation changes.
| Pronoun | apprendre | comprendre | reprendre |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j' | apprends | comprends | reprends |
| tu | apprends | comprends | reprends |
| il / elle / on | apprend | comprend | reprend |
| nous | apprenons | comprenons | reprenons |
| vous | apprenez | comprenez | reprenez |
| ils / elles | apprennent | comprennent | reprennent |
Their past participles follow too: appris, compris, repris, surpris, entrepris.
Prendre in Fixed Expressions
A large share of prendre's frequency comes from set phrases. These are worth meeting whole, because the individual words rarely predict the meaning.
Care and caution
Prendre plus an abstract noun is the standard way to talk about looking after something or being careful with it.
- Prends soin de toi.
- Take care of yourself.
- Prends garde à la marche.
- Mind the step.
- Il a pris des précautions.
- He took precautions.
- Ne le prends pas au sérieux.
- Don't take him seriously.
Prendre soin de is followed by de; prendre garde takes à. The prepositions are fixed and not interchangeable.
Mistaking and reacting
With pour, prendre expresses mistaken identity. With mal or bien, it expresses how someone reacted to news.
- Je l'ai pris pour son frère.
- I mistook him for his brother.
- Il se prend pour un génie.
- He thinks he's a genius.
- Ne le prends pas mal.
- Don't take it the wrong way.
- Il s'en est pris à moi.
- He took it out on me.
Se prendre pour is dismissive: it always suggests the person is overestimating themselves.
Getting things going
A cluster of expressions uses prendre for beginning, joining in, or catching hold.
- Je ne sais pas comment m'y prendre.
- I don't know how to go about it.
- Elle a pris la parole.
- She spoke up.
- Il a pris part à la réunion.
- He took part in the meeting.
- La maison a pris feu.
- The house caught fire.
S'y prendre keeps the y even when nothing earlier in the sentence explains it: it is baked into the expression.
Prendre FAQs
- How do you conjugate prendre in the present tense?
- Je prends, tu prends, il prend, nous prenons, vous prenez, ils prennent. The d of the infinitive survives only in the singular, and the third person plural doubles the n. The past participle is pris, as in j'ai pris le train.
- What's the difference between prendre and emmener?
- Prendre is about getting hold of something; emmener is about taking a person somewhere with you. Je prends la voiture means you'll be the one driving it, while j'emmène Paul en voiture means Paul is coming along. For objects arriving somewhere, French uses apporter or emporter.
- How do you say it takes two hours in French?
- Make the task or the journey the subject: ça prend deux heures, or le trajet prend deux heures. To add the person involved, use an object pronoun before the verb: ça me prend deux heures. Il me faut deux heures and je mets deux heures are equally natural alternatives.
- Can prendre mean to take an exam?
- No. Sitting an exam is passer un examen, and passing it is réussir un examen or être reçu. J'ai passé le bac tells a French speaker you sat the exam and says nothing about the result.
- Which verbs are built on prendre?
- Apprendre (to learn), comprendre (to understand), reprendre (to resume, to take back), surprendre (to surprise), entreprendre (to undertake), and s'éprendre (to fall for someone). All of them conjugate exactly like prendre and end in -pris in the past participle: j'ai appris, j'ai compris.