plaindre
French, verb/plɛ̃dʁ/
plaindre is a French verb meaning “to pity” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Prendre en pitié les maux d’autrui, en être touché, témoigner la compassion que l’on éprouve pour quelqu’un”.
What does plaindre mean in English?
verb
- 1
to pity
- 2
to complain
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Prendre en pitié les maux d’autrui, en être touché, témoigner la compassion que l’on éprouve pour quelqu’un. 2. Employer, donner avec répugnance, à regret, d’une manière insuffisante.
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 plaindre
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- plaignant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- plaint participle past
- plains first-person indicative present
- plaignons first-person indicative plural
- plaignez indicative plural present
- plaignent indicative plural present
- plaignais first-person imperfect indicative
- plaignait imperfect indicative singular
- plaignions first-person imperfect indicative
- plaigniez imperfect indicative plural
- plaignaient imperfect indicative plural
- plaignis first-person historic indicative
- plaignit historic indicative past
- plaignîmes first-person historic indicative
- plaignîtes historic indicative past
- plaignirent historic indicative past
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce plaindre?
- /plɛ̃dʁ/
- \plɛ̃dʁ\
- [plɛ̃dʁ]
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to plaindre
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is plaindre in French?
plaindre appears 18 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).