attendre

Attendre is a French verb meaning to wait or to expect. It is transitive and commonly used with a direct object, as in j’attends le bus or nous attendons nos amis. It can also express a sense of awaiting something in the future or anticipating an event.

Conjugation and forms: Attendre is a regular -re verb. In the present tense the forms are: j’attends, tu attends, il attend, nous attendons, vous attendez, ils attendent. The past participle is attendu, used with auxiliary avoir in compound tenses, e.g., j’ai attendu. Other key forms include the imperfect j’attendais, the future j’attendrai, and the conditional j’attendrais. The present subjunctive is j’attende, tu attendes, il attende, nous attendions, vous attendiez, ils attendent. The present participle is attendant.

Usage notes: Attendre can be followed directly by a person or thing (j’attends quelqu’un, j’attends une réponse). It can also take de + infinitive to express waiting to perform an action, as in j’attends de partir, j’attends de recevoir ta lettre. With que + subjonctif, it expresses waiting for a situation to occur, for example j’attends qu’il arrive. The verb is often contrasted with espérer, where attendre emphasizes the activity of waiting or awaiting rather than merely hoping.

Nominal form and related terms: The noun l’attente denotes the act of waiting or anticipation. The verb’s meaning also extends to “to expect” in contexts where an outcome is anticipated.

Etymology: Attendre derives from Old French atendre, which itself comes from Latin attendere, from ad + tendere, meaning to stretch toward or to stretch one’s attention toward.