The meaning of the reflexive verb "s'entendre"

Max K.A1Kwiziq community member

The meaning of the reflexive verb "s'entendre"

From my understanding this is from the initial verb entendre meaning to hear. 

From the different conjugations it will be I hear myself, I hear you etc but when you add "bien" at the end why does it become "I get along"? i.e., Je m'entends bien avec...?

Thankyou,

Max 

Asked 11 months ago
Maarten K.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor Correct answer

Max, words can have more than one meaning and a pronominal/reflexive verb can have 'overlapping'  and also quite different meanings from a non-reflexive/pronominal verb despite the same 'infinitive' being present. 

 Adding " bien " isn't the major driver of change in meaning in this sentence - it is describing the 'quality' of the 'getting along. It is the context that tells you the meaning ' je m'entends avec (qqn) ... ' 

You can drive yourself crazy with why questions on grammar and word definitions !  Better to learn meaning in context, use a good bilingual dictionary, and as you understand more vocabulary, include a good monolingual French dictionary. There are many. Wordreference is a pretty reliable source, and Larousse, Collins, Robert have excellent online resources available free as well.

 https://www.wordreference.com/fren/s'entendre

The meaning of the reflexive verb "s'entendre"

From my understanding this is from the initial verb entendre meaning to hear. 

From the different conjugations it will be I hear myself, I hear you etc but when you add "bien" at the end why does it become "I get along"? i.e., Je m'entends bien avec...?

Thankyou,

Max 

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