craindre

== French == === Etymology === Inherited from Middle French, from Old French criembre, criendre (later creindre), from Classical Latin tremere, from Proto-Indo-European *trem- (“to tremble”). Altered into a regional Gallo-Romance Vulgar Latin form *cremere, with the initial c- under the influence of the Celtic root *krit- (Breton kridien, Scottish Gaelic crith), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *krey-. Compare the similar Occitan crénher. === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /kʁɛ̃dʁ/ === Verb === craindre (transitive) to fear Synonyms: avoir peur, redouter (intransitive, slang) to suck (to be unwanted or bad) ==== Usage notes ==== craindre que is followed by a subjunctive, and in formal French additionally takes ne as a meaningless or "expletive" particle, e.g. in the following sentence: Je crains que le lac ne soit froid. ― I fear that the lake is cold. ==== Conjugation ==== This verb is conjugated like peindre. It uses the same endings as rendre or vendre, but its -nd- becomes -gn- before a vowel, and its past participle ends in 't' instead of a vowel. ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Related terms ==== crainte trembler === References === === Further reading === “craindre”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012