arriver
French, verb/a.ʁi.ve/
arriver is spelled A-R-R-I-V-E-R (7 letters) and appears 98 times per million words in written French, the 844th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Arriver is a French verb meaning “to arrive (often followed by a location)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Parvenir à destination”.
What does arriver mean in English?
verb
- 1
to arrive (often followed by a location)
On est arrivés à Paris vers 9 heures.
- 2
to happen (unlike other translations of happen, can be used with an indirect object to specify something/somebody affected by the action; it may also be used with a relative clause in the subjunctive)
Ça ne m'arrive jamais.
- 3
informalto cope, to manage
J' sais pas quoi faire... J'arrive plus.
- 4
to be able to, to manage (to do something successfully)
Je suis finalement arrivé à réparer cette porte.
- 5
to obtain a level of success or fame
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Parvenir à destination. 2. Réussir. 3. Survenir, se produire. 4. Être sur le point de survenir.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of arriver
- être + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- arrivant gerund participle present
- étant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- arrivé participle past
- arrive first-person indicative present
- arrives indicative present second-person
- arrivons first-person indicative plural
- arrivez indicative plural present
- arrivent indicative plural present
- arrivais first-person imperfect indicative
- arrivait imperfect indicative singular
- arrivions first-person imperfect indicative
- arriviez imperfect indicative plural
- arrivaient imperfect indicative plural
- arrivai first-person historic indicative
- arrivas historic indicative past
- arriva historic indicative past
- arrivâmes first-person historic indicative
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce arriver?
- /a.ʁi.ve/
- \a.ʁi.ve\
- [a.ʁi.ve]
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to arriver
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is arriver in French?
arriver appears 98 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).