Traîner is a regular French ER verb with a wide range of meanings including “to drag”, “to lug around”, “to dawdle” and “to hang around”.
Traîner
to drag, to hang around
Traîner
Word origin
The Modern French verb traîner comes from trahere (to drag, to haul) in Latin.
Example sentences
Thomas traîne les chaises dans la cuisine.
Thomas drags the chairs into the kitchen.
In this example, traîner means “to dawdle” or “to lag behind”.
Ne traîne pas! On doit y arriver avant dix-huit heures !
Don’t dawdle! We have to get there before 6pm!
In this example, traîner means to “hang out”, “hang around” or “to loiter”.
Les étudiants aiment traîner dans les cafés.
Students like to hang out in cafés.
Interestingly, the expression traîner des casseroles (literally to drag pots and pans) means “to have a lot of baggage”. Vécu is the past participle of vivre, meaning “to live” and “to experience”.
Il a vécu une enfance très difficile et il traîne des casseroles.
He had a hard childhood and has a lot of baggage.
Related lessons
- En vs dans (two ways to say in)
- Vivre – to live
- Devoir – must, to have to
- Cuisine – kitchen, cooking, food
- Telling time
References
French Word of the Day | Lessons by David Issokson
