s'y prendre

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s‿i pʁɑ̃dʁ/

Verb

s’y prendre

1. (transitive with avec) (informal) to go about (something)

   bien s’y prendre ― to do things the right way; to manage well

   Tu t’y prends mal ― You're not doing this properly.

   s’y prendre à l’avance ― to take care of something in advance, ahead of time

Conjugation

This verb is quite irregular, with the following patterns:

• In the infinitive, in the singular forms of the present indicative, and in the future and the conditional, it is conjugated like rendre, perdre, etc. (sometimes called the regular -re verbs).
• In the plural forms of the present indicative and imperative, in the imperfect indicative, in the present subjunctive, and in the present participle, it is conjugated like appeler or jeter, using the stem prenn- before mute 'e' and the stem pren- elsewhere.
• In the past participle, and in the past historic and the imperfect subjunctive, its conjugation resembles that of mettre.

Conjugation of s'y prendre (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	s'y prendre
	compound	s'y être + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	s’y prenant /si pʁə.nɑ̃/
	compound	s'y étant + past participle
past participle		pris /pʁi/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	m’y prends /mi pʁɑ̃/	t’y prends /ti pʁɑ̃/	s’y prend /si pʁɑ̃/	nous y prenons /nu.z‿i pʁə.nɔ̃/	vous y prenez /vu.z‿i pʁə.ne/	s’y prennent /si pʁɛn/
	imperfect	m’y prenais /mi pʁə.nɛ/	t’y prenais /ti pʁə.nɛ/	s’y prenait /si pʁə.nɛ/	nous y prenions /nu.z‿i pʁə.njɔ̃/	vous y preniez /vu.z‿i pʁə.nje/	s’y prenaient /si pʁə.nɛ/
	past historic2	m’y pris /mi pʁi/	t’y pris /ti pʁi/	s’y prit /si pʁi/	nous y prîmes /nu.z‿i pʁim/	vous y prîtes /vu.z‿i pʁit/	s’y prirent /si pʁiʁ/
	future	m’y prendrai /mi pʁɑ̃.dʁe/	t’y prendras /ti pʁɑ̃.dʁa/	s’y prendra /si pʁɑ̃.dʁa/	nous y prendrons /nu.z‿i pʁɑ̃.dʁɔ̃/	vous y prendrez /vu.z‿i pʁɑ̃.dʁe/	s’y prendront /si pʁɑ̃.dʁɔ̃/
	conditional	m’y prendrais /mi pʁɑ̃.dʁɛ/	t’y prendrais /ti pʁɑ̃.dʁɛ/	s’y prendrait /si pʁɑ̃.dʁɛ/	nous y prendrions /nu.z‿i pʁɑ̃.dʁi.jɔ̃/	vous y prendriez /vu.z‿i pʁɑ̃.dʁi.je/	s’y prendraient /si pʁɑ̃.dʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of s'y être + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of s'y être + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of s'y être + past participle
	future perfect	future of s'y être + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of s'y être + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	m’y prenne /mi pʁɛn/	t’y prennes /ti pʁɛn/	s’y prenne /si pʁɛn/	nous y prenions /nu.z‿i pʁə.njɔ̃/	vous y preniez /vu.z‿i pʁə.nje/	s’y prennent /si pʁɛn/
	imperfect2	m’y prisse /mi pʁis/	t’y prisses /ti pʁis/	s’y prît /si pʁi/	nous y prissions /nu.z‿i pʁi.sjɔ̃/	vous y prissiez /vu.z‿i pʁi.sje/	s’y prissent /si pʁis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of s'y être + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of s'y être + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	prends-t’y /pʁɑ̃.ti/	—	prenons-nous-y /pʁə.nɔ̃.nu.zi/	prenez-vous-y /pʁə.ne.vu.zi/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of s'y être + past participle	—	simple imperative of s'y être + past participle	simple imperative of s'y être + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).