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peine

pain

noun pehnn Common

Origin: Latin 'poena' (punishment)

Also means

penalty

Usage Note

Peine covers both emotional pain (j'ai de la peine = I'm sad/grieving) and legal penalty (peine de mort = death penalty). The expression à peine means 'barely' or 'hardly' and is extremely common in spoken French. Valoir la peine (to be worth the trouble) is another indispensable idiom.

Examples

"Ce n'est pas la peine d'attendre."

Natural Translation

It's not worth waiting.

Literal Translation

It's not the trouble to wait.

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