Bonjour to our French learners! In this word of the week blog, we’re studying the verb recevoir.
We’ll start by listening to its pronunciation, which you can find in the audio clip below:
Now let’s move on to the definition. While we don’t encourage learners to translate new French words to similar-looking or similar-sounding words in English, in this case the word ‘receive’ might have come to mind – and for once, we’ll allow it! The main translation of the verb recevoir is indeed to receive, but in different contexts it can also mean to get/obtain or to see. This wide range of uses is what makes this verb particularly interesting.
One thing that learners have to be aware of is how irregular the verb recevoir is. From the verb infinitive recevoir, you might already be familiar with the ending of the word in -voir (another verb meaning ‘to see’).
While it’s often helpful to look for conjugation patterns for irregular verb endings, such as -voir, unfortunately recevoir doesn’t follow the same patterns we might see with this group, even though it includes -voir. To study and learn all of its possible forms, head over to our verb table for recevoir.
Our next step is to study some examples of recevoir in action, where you’ll be able to see plenty of different conjugated forms:
recevoir des nouvelles (de quelqu’un) to receive news / to hear (from someone)
recevoir des clients to see/welcome/receive clients
recevoir quelqu’un à dîner to have someone round/over for dinner
J’ai reçu un coup de fil à six heures du matin. I received a phone call at six o’clock in the morning.
Madame Sharif vous recevra bientôt. Ms Sharif will see you soon.
Nos dentistes reçoivent tous les matins. Our dentists see patients every morning.
Est-ce que tu vas recevoir tes parents à dîner ? Are you going to have your parents round for dinner?
Votre famille a été très bien reçue à l’hôtel. Your family were made to feel very welcome / were warmly welcomed at the hotel.
On ne reçoit pas les chaînes de télévision françaises chez nous. We don’t get French TV channels at ours.
Vincent croyait qu’il recevrait le prix Nobel de littérature l’année prochaine. Vincent believed that he would get the Nobel prize for literature next year.
être reçu à un examen to pass an exam
Well, we hope that this week’s blog has been well received! There are plenty more French words to learn here, every single week – see you next time.
Written by Holly Tarbet, freelance copywriter and editor.
All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Collins, or its parent company, HarperCollins.
