Hello again to our French learners. In this week’s blog, we’re taking a detailed look at the verb serrer.
Before we begin, take a listen to our audio clip so that you can pronounce the infinitive form with confidence:
Hello again to our French learners. In this week’s blog, we’re taking a detailed look at the verb serrer.
Before we begin, take a listen to our audio clip so that you can pronounce the infinitive form with confidence:
Now to find out what this verb means in English. The reason we’ve picked this word is because serrer has quite a few different translation options. It’s also a bit of a ‘false friend’, because a native English speaker might try to find a link with words like ‘serration’ or ‘serrated’. However, its main translations include to hold / grip tightly, to squeeze / compress, to tighten and to clench. Maybe not what you were expecting!
For any grammar fans among our readers, you might be glad to learn that serrer follows a regular conjugation pattern for -er verbs. But you can find more information about this on our Easy Learning French Grammar pages, for the present indicative, present subjunctive and imperfect tense.
With all of that in mind, we can take a look at some examples of the verb in action, and note the varied ways in which the verb is translated into English:
serrer la main à quelqu’un; serrer la main de quelqu’un to shake hands with someone; to shake someone’s hand
serrer quelqu’un dans ses bras to embrace / hug / hold someone
serrer à droite / gauche to keep to the right / left (perhaps while driving on the road)
La dentiste croit que tu serres les dents pendant la nuit. The dentist thinks that you clench your teeth during the night.
se serrer la ceinture to tighten one’s belt (this could be literal, or it could be metaphorical, in terms of saving money)
Il faut serrer les vis du devant. You need to tighten the screws on the front.
Je viens d’acheter une nouvelle veste, l’autre me serrait trop. I just bought a new jacket, the other one was too tight on me.
Serrer can also be used reflexively:
se serrer to get closer; to squeeze up
Nous nous serrerons si vous voulez vous asseoir dans le canapé. We will squeeze up if you want to sit down on the sofa.
se serrer la main to shake (each other’s) hands
Our Easy Learning French Grammar section has more information on reflexive verbs.
Well done on learning a new French word and expanding your vocabulary. We’d love to shake your hand to congratulate you…we hope that a virtual handshake will do for now! See you again next week.
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.
