Level B1 (Intermediate)
Today’s French word of the day is the verb aborder, which means to approach (a subject or person), to reach or land on (a place), and to come up to someone or something.
Meaning
Pronunciation & Register
Example sentences
Related words and lessons
Meaning
Aborder means “to approach” or “to tackle” a subject or situation. It’s commonly used when talking about starting a conversation or dealing with a topic.
Pronunciation & Register
Pronunciation: /a.bɔʁ.de/
Register: Neutral, standard French
Example sentences
This first sentence shows how to use aborder in the context of approaching a person. There are two verbs for “to know” – savoir and connaître. This sentence uses savoir because it has nothing to do with “knowing” the person as in being aquainted with them.
Je ne sais pas comment je vais aborder cette personne.
I don’t know how I’m going to approach this person.
For this second example sentence, translations for aborder un sujet include to approach, broach, address, tackle or take on a subject. This sentence uses two tenses: The le futur proche (a commonly used future tense) and l’imparfait (imperfect).
Aujourd’hui on va aborder un sujet que je voulais aborder depuis longtemps.
Today we’re going to tackle a problem that I’ve wanted to tackle for a long time.
Related words and lessons
- Poser – To put, place, ask (a question)
- s’attaquer à (to tackle)
- entamer (to begin, start)
- discuter de (to discuss)
- aborder un sujet (to bring up a topic)
- Regular ER, IR & RE French Verb Conjugations
