craindre
French
Etymology
From Middle French, from Old French criembre, criendre (later creindre), from Classical Latin tremere, present active infinitive of tremō, from Proto-Indo-European *trem- (“to tremble”). 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-. Compare the similar Occitan crénher.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kʁɛ̃dʁ/
audio (file)
Verb
craindre
- (transitive) to fear
- (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 formal French additionally takes ne as a meaningless or "expletive" 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)
| infinitive | simple | craindre | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | craignant /kʁɛ.ɲɑ̃/ or /kʁe.ɲɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | craint /kʁɛ̃/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) | present | crains /kʁɛ̃/ | crains /kʁɛ̃/ | craint /kʁɛ̃/ | craignons /kʁɛ.ɲɔ̃/ or /kʁe.ɲɔ̃/ | craignez /kʁɛ.ɲe/ or /kʁe.ɲe/ | craignent /kʁɛɲ/ |
| imperfect | craignais /kʁɛ.ɲɛ/ or /kʁe.ɲɛ/ | craignais /kʁɛ.ɲɛ/ or /kʁe.ɲɛ/ | craignait /kʁɛ.ɲɛ/ or /kʁe.ɲɛ/ | craignions /kʁɛ.ɲjɔ̃/ or /kʁe.ɲjɔ̃/ | craigniez /kʁɛ.ɲje/ or /kʁe.ɲje/ | craignaient /kʁɛ.ɲɛ/ or /kʁe.ɲɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | craignis /kʁɛ.ɲi/ or /kʁe.ɲi/ | craignis /kʁɛ.ɲi/ or /kʁe.ɲi/ | craignit /kʁɛ.ɲi/ or /kʁe.ɲi/ | craignîmes /kʁɛ.ɲim/ or /kʁe.ɲim/ | craignîtes /kʁɛ.ɲit/ or /kʁe.ɲit/ | craignirent /kʁɛ.ɲiʁ/ or /kʁe.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 | 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 | craigne /kʁɛɲ/ | craignes /kʁɛɲ/ | craigne /kʁɛɲ/ | craignions /kʁɛ.ɲjɔ̃/ or /kʁe.ɲjɔ̃/ | craigniez /kʁɛ.ɲje/ or /kʁe.ɲje/ | craignent /kʁɛɲ/ |
| imperfect2 | craignisse /kʁɛ.ɲis/ or /kʁe.ɲis/ | craignisses /kʁɛ.ɲis/ or /kʁe.ɲis/ | craignît /kʁɛ.ɲi/ or /kʁe.ɲi/ | craignissions /kʁɛ.ɲi.sjɔ̃/ or /kʁe.ɲi.sjɔ̃/ | craignissiez /kʁɛ.ɲi.sje/ or /kʁe.ɲi.sje/ | craignissent /kʁɛ.ɲis/ or /kʁe.ɲis/ | |
| (compound tenses) | past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | crains /kʁɛ̃/ | — | craignons /kʁɛ.ɲɔ̃/ or /kʁe.ɲɔ̃/ | craignez /kʁɛ.ɲe/ or /kʁe.ɲe/ | — | |
| 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 [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). | |||||||
Synonyms
- avoir peur
- redouter
Derived terms
- chat échaudé craint l'eau froide
- ne craindre ni Dieu ni diable
Related terms
- crainte
- trembler
References
- Etymology and history of “craindre”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Further reading
- “craindre”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.