prendre congé

\pʁɑ̃.dʁə kɔ̃.ʒe\

/\pʁɑ̃.dʁə kɔ̃.ʒe\/ verb

The verdict

“prendre congé” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
13
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Faire les adieux qu’exige la politesse avant de partir, se retirer.

Corpus desk

Index FR-prendre-conge · prendre congé · French

prendre congé · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 13 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "P" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for prendre congé
PropertyValue
Headwordprendre congé
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\pʁɑ̃.dʁə kɔ̃.ʒe\
Letters13
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « prendre congé » en français

prendre congéreste hors des 100.000 mots français les plus fréquents, dans la longue queue du vocabulaire technique, archaïque ou rare, là où le doute d'orthographe frappe.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

prendre congé is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed \pʁɑ̃.dʁə kɔ̃.ʒe\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Faire les adieux qu’exige la politesse avant de partir, se retirer.".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for prendre congé, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is prendre congé, spelled P-R-E-N-D-R-E- -C-O-N-G-É.

Definition

  1. 1
    Faire les adieux qu’exige la politesse avant de partir, se retirer.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how prendre congé appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Quelle peine n'éprouvera-t-il pas lorsqu'on lui dira : Monsieur un tel, votre maladie est mortelle ; il conviendrait que vous reçussiez les sacremens, que vous vous unissiez à Dieu, et que vous prissiez congé de ce monde. Prendre congé de ce monde?
  2. Le Valdemar devait pousser son voyage de circumnavigation jusqu’à Seidisfiord, station située sur la côte orientale de l’Islande ; mais comme je caressais toujours l’idée de gagner Reykjavík par terre en franchissant le désert du Stórisandr, le moment était venu de prendre congé du capitaine Kihl et de mes compagnons de traversée.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "prendre congé"?
"prendre congé" is spelled P-R-E-N-D-R-E- -C-O-N-G-É. The IPA pronunciation is \pʁɑ̃.dʁə kɔ̃.ʒe\.
What does "prendre congé" mean?
As a verb, "prendre congé" means: Faire les adieux qu’exige la politesse avant de partir, se retirer.
How do you pronounce "prendre congé"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "prendre congé" is \pʁɑ̃.dʁə kɔ̃.ʒe\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "prendre congé" come from?
"prendre congé" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list