craindre

French

Etymology

From Middle French, from Old French criembre, criendre (later creindre), from Classical Latin tremere, present active infinitive of tremō, later altered into a regional Gallo-Romance Vulgar Latin form *cremere, with the initial c- under the influence of the Celtic root *krit- (Breton kridien, Scottish Gaelic crith)[1], ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *krey- (Latin tremō ultimately derives from Proto-Indo-European *trem- (“to tremble”)). Compare the similar Occitan crénher.

Pronunciation

  • audio(file)
  • IPA(key): /kʁɛ̃dʁ/

Verb

craindre

  1. (transitive) to fear
  2. (intransitive, slang) to suck (to be unwanted or bad)
    J'ai perdu mon portefeuille. — Merde, ça craint.
    • I've lost my wallet. — Shit, that sucks.

Usage notes

  • craindre que is followed by a subjunctive, and in addition takes a ne as a meaningless particle, e.g. in the following sentence:
  • Je crains que le lac ne soit froid.
    • I fear that the lake is cold.

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated like peindre. It uses the same endings as rendre or vendre, but its -nd- becomes -gn- before a vowel, and its past participle ends in ‘t’ instead of a vowel.

  Conjugation of craindre (see also Appendix:French verbs)
simple compound
infinitive craindre avoir craint
gerund en craignant en ayant craint
present participle craignant
/kʁɛ.ɲɑ̃/
past participle craint
/kʁɛ̃/
person singular plural
first second third first second third
indicative je (j’) tu il nous vous ils
simple
tenses		 present crains
/kʁɛ̃/		 crains
/kʁɛ̃/		 craint
/kʁɛ̃/		 craignons
/kʁɛ.ɲɔ̃/		 craignez
/kʁɛ.ɲe/		 craignent
/kʁɛɲ/
imperfect craignais
/kʁɛ.ɲɛ/		 craignais
/kʁɛ.ɲɛ/		 craignait
/kʁɛ.ɲɛ/		 craignions
/kʁɛ.ɲjɔ̃/		 craigniez
/kʁɛ.ɲje/		 craignaient
/kʁɛ.ɲɛ/
past historic1 craignis
/kʁɛ.ɲi/		 craignis
/kʁɛ.ɲi/		 craignit
/kʁɛ.ɲi/		 craignîmes
/kʁɛ.ɲim/		 craignîtes
/kʁɛ.ɲit/		 craignirent
/kʁɛ.ɲiʁ/
future craindrai
/kʁɛ̃.dʁe/		 craindras
/kʁɛ̃.dʁa/		 craindra
/kʁɛ̃.dʁa/		 craindrons
/kʁɛ̃.dʁɔ̃/		 craindrez
/kʁɛ̃.dʁe/		 craindront
/kʁɛ̃.dʁɔ̃/
conditional craindrais
/kʁɛ̃.dʁɛ/		 craindrais
/kʁɛ̃.dʁɛ/		 craindrait
/kʁɛ̃.dʁɛ/		 craindrions
/kʁɛ̃.dʁi.jɔ̃/		 craindriez
/kʁɛ̃.dʁi.je/		 craindraient
/kʁɛ̃.dʁɛ/
compound
tenses		 present perfect Use the present tense of avoir followed by the past participle
pluperfect Use the imperfect tense of avoir followed by the past participle
past anterior1 Use the past historic tense of avoir followed by the past participle
future perfect Use the future tense of avoir followed by the past participle
conditional perfect Use the conditional tense of avoir followed by the past participle
subjunctive que je (j’) que tu qu’il que nous que vous qu’ils
simple
tenses		 present craigne
/kʁɛɲ/		 craignes
/kʁɛɲ/		 craigne
/kʁɛɲ/		 craignions
/kʁɛ.ɲjɔ̃/		 craigniez
/kʁɛ.ɲje/		 craignent
/kʁɛɲ/
imperfect1 craignisse
/kʁɛ.ɲis/		 craignisses
/kʁɛ.ɲis/		 craignît
/kʁɛ.ɲi/		 craignissions
/kʁɛ.ɲi.sjɔ̃/		 craignissiez
/kʁɛ.ɲi.sje/		 craignissent
/kʁɛ.ɲis/
compound
tenses		 past Use the present subjunctive tense of avoir followed by the past participle
pluperfect1 Use the imperfect subjunctive tense of avoir followed by the past participle
imperative – tu – nous vous –
— crains
/kʁɛ̃/		 — craignons
/kʁɛ.ɲɔ̃/		 craignez
/kʁɛ.ɲe/		 —
1literary tenses

Synonyms

Derived terms

References

  1. ↑ “craindre” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Further reading

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