tenir
French, verb/tə.niʁ/
tenir is a French verb meaning “to have; to hold” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Garder fermement dans la main ou dans les mains”.
What does tenir mean in English?
verb
- 1
to have; to hold
- 2
to keep
- 3
to stay; to hold
tenir bon
- 4
to hold on
La vie ne tient qu'à un fil.
- 5
to hold oneself, to be standing
Il se tenait dans le coin.
- 6
to maintain, remain in a certain position or disposition
Tiens-toi droit !
- 7
to behave
Tiens-toi bien.
- 8
to be attached (to), to be fond (of), to hold dear
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Garder fermement dans la main ou dans les mains. 2. Maîtriser, avoir le contrôle (d'un animal, par exemple), d'un lieu (dans le langage militaire), de quelqu'un, etc. 3. Occuper (un poste, un rôle…). 4. Obtenir la réponse à une question qu'on se posait, après des difficultés.
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 tenir
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- tenant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- tenu participle past
- tiens first-person indicative present
- tient indicative present singular
- tenons first-person indicative plural
- tenez indicative plural present
- tiennent indicative plural present
- tenais first-person imperfect indicative
- tenait imperfect indicative singular
- tenions first-person imperfect indicative
- teniez imperfect indicative plural
- tenaient imperfect indicative plural
- tins first-person historic indicative
- tint historic indicative past
- tînmes first-person historic indicative
- tîntes historic indicative past
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce tenir?
- /tə.niʁ/
- \tə.niʁ\
- [tə.niʁ]
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to tenir
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is tenir in French?
tenir appears 78 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).