French

Verb

promener

1. (reflexive) to walk (leisurely), to go for a walk, to stroll
   • 1869, Charles Beaudelaire, "Perte d'auréole", Petits Poëmes en prose:

     Je puis maintenant me promener incognito, faire des actions basses, et me livrer à la crapule, comme les simples mortels

     Now I can stroll about incognito, do mean things, launch into debauches, like ordinary mortals. (transl. Keith Waldrop, 2009)

   • 1962, Françoise Hardy

     Tous les garçons et les filles de mon âge se promènent dans la rue deux par deux.

     All the boys and girls of my age walk down the street in pairs.

2. (transitive) to walk out (an animal)
3. (transitive) to carry around, often with the implication of showing off

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated mostly like the regular -er verbs (parler and chanter and so on), but the -e- /ə/ of the second-to-last syllable becomes -è- /ɛ/ when the next vowel is a silent or schwa -e-. For example, in the third-person singular present indicative, we have il promène rather than *il promene. Other verbs conjugated this way include lever and mener. Related but distinct conjugations include those of appeler and préférer.

Related terms

• promenade

See also

• aller
• border
• côtoyer
• courir
• longer
• marcher