trouver
French, verb/tʁu.ve/
trouver is spelled T-R-O-U-V-E-R (7 letters) and appears 269 times per million words in written French, the 308th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Trouver is a French verb meaning “to find; to retrieve something lost, turn up something hidden, or encounter something previously unknown to one” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Rencontrer la personne ou la chose que l’on cherche”.
What does trouver mean in English?
verb
- 1
to find; to retrieve something lost, turn up something hidden, or encounter something previously unknown to one
Quand est-ce qu'elle a trouvé les clés ?
- 2
to find (something to be the case); to think or consider (something to be so)
Je vous trouve si jolie.
- 3
to find oneself (at a place or in a situation)
- 4
to be found, to be situated, to be
La boulangerie se trouve en face du cinéma.
- 5
to be the case, to turn out (that)
Il se trouve que je passe près de chez vous.
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Rencontrer la personne ou la chose que l’on cherche. 2. Rencontrer par hasard. 3. Parvenir à l'état ou à la situation que l'on souhaite. 4. Surprendre.
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 trouver
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- trouvant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- trouvé participle past
- trouve first-person indicative present
- tʁuv first-person indicative present
- trouves indicative present second-person
- trouvons first-person indicative plural
- trouvez indicative plural present
- trouvent indicative plural present
- trouvais first-person imperfect indicative
- trouvait imperfect indicative singular
- trouvions first-person imperfect indicative
- trouviez imperfect indicative plural
- trouvaient imperfect indicative plural
- trouvai first-person historic indicative
- trouvas historic indicative past
- trouva historic indicative past
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce trouver?
- /tʁu.ve/
- \tʁu.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 trouver
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is trouver in French?
trouver appears 269 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).