surprendre

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French surprendre, from Old French sorprendre. By surface analysis, sur- +‎ prendre. In Old French sorprendre (“to overtake”) (formed from sor- (“over”); cf. modern French sur-) was distinguished from sousprendre (“to surprise, catch unaware (from beneath)”) (formed from sous- (“under”)); the two verbs later became one over time.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /syʁ.pʁɑ̃dʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑ̃dr

Verb

surprendre

1. to surprise

   Synonym: étonner

   Plus rien ne me surprend. ― Nothing surprises me anymore.

2. to catch out
3. to overhear, to discover, to spot (an action or secret someone is trying to hide)

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated on the model of prendre. That means it is quite irregular, with the following patterns:

• In the infinitive, in the singular forms of the present indicative, and in the future and the conditional, it is conjugated like rendre, perdre, etc. (sometimes called the regular -re verbs).
• In the plural forms of the present indicative and imperative, in the imperfect indicative, in the present subjunctive, and in the present participle, it is conjugated like appeler or jeter, using the stem surprenn- before mute 'e' and the stem surpren- elsewhere.
• In the past participle, and in the past historic and the imperfect subjunctive, its conjugation resembles that of mettre.

Conjugation of surprendre (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	surprendre
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	surprenant /syʁ.pʁə.nɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		surpris /syʁ.pʁi/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	surprends /syʁ.pʁɑ̃/	surprends /syʁ.pʁɑ̃/	surprend /syʁ.pʁɑ̃/	surprenons /syʁ.pʁə.nɔ̃/	surprenez /syʁ.pʁə.ne/	surprennent /syʁ.pʁɛn/
	imperfect	surprenais /syʁ.pʁə.nɛ/	surprenais /syʁ.pʁə.nɛ/	surprenait /syʁ.pʁə.nɛ/	surprenions /syʁ.pʁə.njɔ̃/	surpreniez /syʁ.pʁə.nje/	surprenaient /syʁ.pʁə.nɛ/
	past historic2	surpris /syʁ.pʁi/	surpris /syʁ.pʁi/	surprit /syʁ.pʁi/	surprîmes /syʁ.pʁim/	surprîtes /syʁ.pʁit/	surprirent /syʁ.pʁiʁ/
	future	surprendrai /syʁ.pʁɑ̃.dʁe/	surprendras /syʁ.pʁɑ̃.dʁa/	surprendra /syʁ.pʁɑ̃.dʁa/	surprendrons /syʁ.pʁɑ̃.dʁɔ̃/	surprendrez /syʁ.pʁɑ̃.dʁe/	surprendront /syʁ.pʁɑ̃.dʁɔ̃/
	conditional	surprendrais /syʁ.pʁɑ̃.dʁɛ/	surprendrais /syʁ.pʁɑ̃.dʁɛ/	surprendrait /syʁ.pʁɑ̃.dʁɛ/	surprendrions /syʁ.pʁɑ̃.dʁi.jɔ̃/	surprendriez /syʁ.pʁɑ̃.dʁi.je/	surprendraient /syʁ.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	surprenne /syʁ.pʁɛn/	surprennes /syʁ.pʁɛn/	surprenne /syʁ.pʁɛn/	surprenions /syʁ.pʁə.njɔ̃/	surpreniez /syʁ.pʁə.nje/	surprennent /syʁ.pʁɛn/
	imperfect2	surprisse /syʁ.pʁis/	surprisses /syʁ.pʁis/	surprît /syʁ.pʁi/	surprissions /syʁ.pʁi.sjɔ̃/	surprissiez /syʁ.pʁi.sje/	surprissent /syʁ.pʁis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	surprends /syʁ.pʁɑ̃/	—	surprenons /syʁ.pʁə.nɔ̃/	surprenez /syʁ.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: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Related terms

• surpris
• surprise

Descendants

• → Asturian: sorprender
• → Spanish: sorprender
• → Portuguese: surpreender
• → Romanian: surprinde

Further reading

• “surprendre”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French sorprendre, sousprendre.

Verb

surprendre

1. to surprise
2. to take (something) over; to seize
   • 1560, Jean Longis, Robert le Mangnier, Le Premier livre d'Amadis de Gaule, page CCXXVII:

     Ne voyez vous comme il a traité ceux du chasteau qu'il a surprins ?

     Don't you see how he treat those from the castle he seized?

Related terms

• surprins (adjective)
• prendre

Descendants

• English: surprise (from past participle)
• French: surprendre