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Level: A1 (Beginner)
Lesson written by French teacher David Issokson for students who want to learn French online, with native audio by Marie Assel Cambier, a voice artist from France.
The French Word of the Day is attendre, which means “to wait.” It’s a model regular -re verb, forming the pattern for many other French verbs, and today’s examples will show its main uses.
✅ Meaning
✅ Pronunciation
✅ Example sentences
✅ Related Words & Expressions
✅ Related lessons
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📘 Attendre meaning
Attendre is a versatile French regular -re verb meaning “to wait” or “to expect.” It’s used for waiting on people or things, and in the reflexive form s’attendre à it means “to expect something.”
👉 Note: Attendre always takes a direct object—e.g., J’attends mon ami (I’m waiting for my friend). Using pour (for) here would be incorrect.
🎧 Attendre pronunciation
Attendre is pronounced /a.tɑ̃dʁ/, roughly “ah-tahndr.”
📝 French and English examples
Attendre – to wait
J’attends le bus devant l’école.
I’m waiting for the bus in front of the school.
Nous attendons une réponse importante.
We are expecting an important answer.
Ils attendent un bébé en janvier.
They are expecting a baby in January.
Je m’attends à une surprise ce soir.
I’m expecting a surprise tonight.
✨ Want to dive deeper? Check out my explanation of the difference between attendre and s’attendre à here »
Attends, je viens tout de suite !
Wait, I’m coming right away!
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🔗 Related words and expressions
- l’attente — waiting, the wait; expectation
- dans l’attente de — awaiting, in anticipation of
- sans attendre — without delay
- attendre avec impatience — to look forward to
- faire attendre — to keep someone waiting
- contre toute attente — against all expectations
📊 Master the conjugations of attendre!
Now that you’ve gone through these examples of attendre, check out my audio verb conjugations!
👉 Attendre conjugation charts »
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