prétendre
French, verb/pʁe.tɑ̃dʁ/
prétendre is spelled P-R-É-T-E-N-D-R-E (9 letters) and appears 13 times per million words in written French, the 5,648th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Prétendre is a French verb meaning “to claim, to allege” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Soutenir, affirmer, être persuadé de”.
What does prétendre mean in English?
verb
- 1
to claim, to allege
- 2
to expect, to consider necessary
- 3
to aim at, to set one's sights on
- 4
to claim
- 5
to pretend
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Soutenir, affirmer, être persuadé de. 2. Vouloir, entendre. 3. Demander, réclamer comme un droit. 4. Appliquer une prétension à un élément mécanique.
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 prétendre
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- prétendant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- prétendu participle past
- prétends first-person indicative present
- prétend indicative present singular
- prétendons first-person indicative plural
- prétendez indicative plural present
- prétendent indicative plural present
- prétendais first-person imperfect indicative
- prétendait imperfect indicative singular
- prétendions first-person imperfect indicative
- prétendiez imperfect indicative plural
- prétendaient imperfect indicative plural
- prétendis first-person historic indicative
- prétendit historic indicative past
- prétendîmes first-person historic indicative
- prétendîtes historic indicative past
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce prétendre?
- /pʁe.tɑ̃dʁ/
- \pʁe.tɑ̃dʁ\
- [pʁe.tɑ̃dʁ]
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to prétendre
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is prétendre in French?
prétendre appears 13 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).