to comb or to paint

Laura K.A2Kwiziq community member

to comb or to paint

ils peignent leurs cheveux, ils peignent un tableau. Are these different verbs with a double meaing? To comb and to paint.

This question relates to:French lesson "Conjugate verbs in -aindre/-eindre/-oindre in the present tense in French (Le Présent)"

Asked 3 years ago

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Alan G.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor Correct answer

These are different verbs - peindre = to paint, and peigner = to comb. It just happens, by coincidence, that they are identical in the ils form of the present tense, and in some other conjugations.

There are a surprisingly (to me) large number of verbs where this happens. Sometimes a verb in one tense is the same as another verb in a different tense. I gave a link to this list before, which includes peindre and peigner:

https://a3nm.net/blog/french_ambiguous_verbal_forms_2.html

Like13 years ago

Laura K. asked:

to comb or to paint

ils peignent leurs cheveux, ils peignent un tableau. Are these different verbs with a double meaing? To comb and to paint.

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