Tenir is a verb that came up in our French conversation groups last week. It is quite a useful verb but one that tends to get missed. It literally means ‘to hold’ and conjugates like ‘venir’ but has a myriad of other meanings. It’s a great sentence starter, or a way of introducing a subject. You can use it in the ‘tu’ or ‘vous’ form to attract your listener’s attention. E.g. ‘Tiens, devine ce que je viens de faire’ = ‘Hey, look what I’ve just done’.
Tenir also indicates surprise : ‘Tiens, je me suis trompé encore de numéro!’ – ‘Goodness me, I’ve got the number wrong again!’ You’ll also hear it in shops when the shopkeeper gives you your change: ‘Tenez’ = ‘Here you are’.
And there are lots of idioms using this verb: ‘j’y tiens’ means ‘it’s important to me’ and ‘ je te tiens au courant’ means ‘I’ll keep you posted’. The verb is not to be confused with ‘le tien’ which means ‘yours’, so ‘ce stylo, c’est le tien? = ‘Is this pen yours?’. Which brings me to finish with ‘A la tienne, Étienne!’ – a colloquial expression for ‘Cheers’!
A la semaine prochaine, Angela
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