Prendre

A French verb to take

The irregular French verb prendre literally
means "to take," but also has a number of
additional meanings and is used in many
idiomatic expressions.

Prendre = to take (lấy, dùng)

Prendre means “to take" both literally and
figuratively.
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Par exemple…

Qui a pris mon Who took my

journal ? newspaper?

Je prends du I take sugar in

sucre dans mon my coffee.
café.

Il va prendre le He’s going to

bus. take the bus.

Prends ton temps. Take your

time.

When taking something from someone’s hands or arms, use prendre de: (prendre qch de qun : lấy cái
gì từ ai)

J’ai pris le livre de ses   I took the book from his hands.
mains.

 But when taking something out of or off something inanimate (lấy vật gì đó ra khỏi hoặc ra xa
một vật vô tri vô giác khác), prendre requires a different preposition, usually dans or sur.

Prends les ciseaux dans le tiroir.   Take the scissors from the drawer.
 Tu peux prendre l’argent sur la   You can take the money from the table.
table.

Prendre = to catch, capture (bắt)

Il a pris quatre poissons.   He caught four fish.

J’essaie de prendre un   I’m trying to catch a thief.

voleur.

Prendre à + infinitive = to catch, spot [someone] doing (bắt, bắt gặp, phát
hiện ai đang làm gì)
Il faut le prendre à tricher.   We have to catch him cheating.

Elle m’a pris à sortir en   She caught me sneaking out.

catimi.

Prendre = to catch fire (bắt lửa, thắp sáng)

Le bois n’a pas encore   The wood hasn’t caught (on fire) yet.
pris.

Qui a pris l’allumette ?   Who lit the match?

Prendre = to catch on, be successful (nắm bắt, thành công)

Le film a pris plus que l’on aurait pu   The movie was more successful than anyone
imaginer. could have imagined.
 On cherche toujours le prochain start-   People are always looking for the next big
up qui va prendre. start-up.

Prendre = to pick up, fetch (prendre qqun = to pick someone up = đón ai)
Il va passer nous prendre dans 10   He’s going to pick us up in 10 minutes.
minutes.

Je l’ai pris devant la poste.   I picked him up in front of the post office.

Prendre = to handle, deal with (xử lý, đối phó với)

Comment va-t-on prendre ce   How are we going to deal with this problem?
problème ?

Auguste va le prendre.   Auguste is going to handle it.

Prendre = to come over, strike (ập đến, xảy đến)

La tristesse m’a pris en   Sadness came over me as I looked at the photo. (nỗi
regardant la photo. buồn ập đến khi tôi xem bức ảnh)

Qu’est-ce qui te   What’s come over you? What’s the matter with you?
prend  ?  (informal)

Prendre = to fool, dupe (lừa gạt)

Tu m’as pris pour la dernière fois. Lần cuối cùng bạn   You’ve fooled me for the last
lừa tôi time.

Il essaie de me prendre avec des paroles aimables.   He’s trying to sweet-talk me.

Anh ấy đã cố gắng lừa tôi bằng những lời nói ngọt

 ngào

Prendre = to set, thicken (se lại, đông kết/đặc lại)

Il faut laisser la gélatine le temps de prendre. Phải để   You have to let the gelatin set.
thời gian để gélatine se lại

J’ai toujours des difficultés à faire prendre la   I always have trouble getting
mayonnaise. Tôi luôn gặp khó khan khi làm đặc my mayonnaise to thicken.
mayonnaise.

Se prendre
Se prendre can be used as a reflexive verb or in passive reflexive construction.

a) Reflexive: to consider oneself (se prendre pour = tự cho mình/nghĩ mình là)

Elle se prend pour une diplomate.   She considers herself a diplomat.

Cô ấy tự nhận mình là 1 nhà ngoại cảm

Tu te prends pour qui  ? bạn nghĩ bạn là   Who do you think you are?
ai?

b) Passive reflexive: to get caught, trapped (bị kẹt, bị mắc, bị dình)

Mon sac s’est pris dans la porte.   My bag got caught in the door.

Túi của tôi bị kẹt trong cửa

La souris s’est prise dans le   The mouse got caught in the trap
piège.

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