French word of the week: élever

In this French word of the week blog, we’re taking a detailed look at the verb élever.

As always, we’ll start by learning how to pronounce it correctly – have a listen to the audio clip below:

Now, what exactly does élever mean in English? If you’re trying to find similarities with English, perhaps the verb elevate might come to mind. While it’s not quite the same, it’s a good way of remembering the meaning, as it’s not too far off the main translations.

We can translate élever as to raise, but also to put up or to erect, as well as to breed or to bring up. As always with our words of the week, we’ll look at this in different contexts to understand the different translations.

While élever mainly follows the regular conjugation pattern for -er verbs, you will need to learn some extra rules for certain tenses. Head over to our Easy Learning French Grammar page about verbs with an accent change in the present tense if you want to find out more.

It’s time to have a look at élever in action. First, we’ll see how it’s used to talk about people and animals:

Mes parents adorent habiter à la campagne. Ils élèvent des chèvres dans leur jardin !  My parents love living in the countryside. They’re breeding goats in their garden!

C’est mon rêve d’élever des chiens de race lévrier afghan. It’s my dream to breed Afghan Hounds.

Elle a été élevée par son oncle à Paris pendant la première guerre mondiale. She was raised by her uncle in Paris during the First World War.

J’ai élevé mes enfants toute seule. I raised my children on my own.

Next, we’ll see how to use élever in the same way, but for inanimate objects, concepts and ideas:

C’est malpoli d’élever ta voix comme ça. It’s impolite to raise your voice like that.

On élèvera un monument à Jeanne d’Arc au centre-ville. They will erect a monument of Joan of Arc in the town centre.

Mes voisins ont élevé un mur entre nos deux jardins. My neighbours have put up a wall between our gardens.

élever au cube; élever au carré to cube; to square (in the context of numbers and/or mathematics)

Before we sign off for this week, it’s also worth touching briefly on the reflexive form of this verb: s’élever. While its translations are mostly around the same theme as the regular verb, it’s used in a slightly different way:

s’élever to rise (up); to increase; to go up

Le ballon s’est élevé dans le ciel avant de disparaître. The balloon rose up in the sky before disappearing.

À cause du réchauffement climatique, la température en été s’élève en France. The temperature in summer in France is going up because of global warming.

After studying this useful verb, do you feel like you might have raised your level of French knowledge? We hope that you can build upon this next week and your love of language learning keeps increasing!

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.