Récupérer: To Get Better or Get Back?

By Marie-Claire Lander

Récupérer is not just a near-cognate of “recuperate” in English. This versatile verb has a wide range of meanings: “to collect," "to pick up," to recover,” and much more. Let's explore how récupérer translates in different situations through Yabla videos.

The closest translation to English of récupérer is “recuperate.” In the sense of physical recovery, récupérer is used on its own and is intransitive just like in English:

Elle a pris une journée de congé pour récupérer.

She took a day off to recuperate.

Since the verb “recuperate” is a lot less common in English, récupérer is more likely to translate as “to recover." In the example below, Joanna wants to récupérer musculairement (her muscles to recover):

Alors pour mieux récupérer, pour faciliter la récupération... -Oui. on va faire quelques étirements, quelques assouplissements qui vont te permettre de récupérer musculairement.

So to recover better, to facilitate the recovery... -Yes. we're going to do some stretches, some limbering-up exercises that are going to allow your muscles to recover.

Captions 5-7, Joanna La course à pied: Récupération
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But récupérer does not only mean “to recover physically.” Récupérer can also be a transitive verb, in which case it means “to recover” an object. Depending on what type of object is being recovered, you will notice that the translation will vary. In this video, the speaker talks about récupérer des œufs de poisson (recovering fish eggs):

Les œufs des poissons sont récupérés, sont mis à part.

The fish eggs are, uh recovered, are set apart.

Captions 9-10, Lionel à Lindre-Basse - Part 5
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Instead of récupérer des œufs de poisson (recovering fish eggs), the cook in this next video récupère la pulpe des pamplemousses (collects grapefruit pulp). This time, récupérer means “to collect”:

Puis elle récupère la pulpe des pamplemousses qu'elle ajoute dessus

Then she collects the pulp from the grapefruits, which she adds on top

Caption 80, KTOTV Recettes traditionnelles de Noël - Part 1
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Moving on from food, we can also récupérer objects like un trousseau de clés:

Alerté par un message de Mathieu, son complice récupère le trousseau afin d'en faire un double.

Alerted by a message from Mathieu, his accomplice retrieves the set of keys in order to make a duplicate of them.

Captions 65-67, Le Jour où tout a basculé Je me suis fait voler ma musique - Part 4
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In another video, a fan is told to go récupérer des photos at an actress’s home. This time the verb translates as “pick up”:

Euh... si tu veux, tu peux passer à la maison les récupérer.

Uh... if you want, you can drop by my house to pick them up.

Caption 73, Le Jour où tout a basculé J'ai piégé mon fan - Part 4
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In a political context, we have the phrase récupérer des voix (to pick up votes):

C'est... je crois pour récupérer les voix de l'extrême droite et... -Oui.

It's... I think to pick up votes from the far right and... -Yes.

Caption 23, Sophie et Patrice Le port de l'abaya à l'école
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And in a legal context, officials might need to récupérer des témoignages (gather testimonies):

Une fois que les policiers ont récupéré les témoignages de ces messieurs, ils ont estimé que Madame Berdil était coupable.

Once the police gathered these gentlemen's testimonies, they considered Ms. Berdil guilty.

Captions 66-67, Le Jour où tout a basculé À l'audience - Arnaque en couple ? - Part 5
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However, when referring to objects that would otherwise be discarded, récupérer can have a different meaning, “to salvage." In the video below, the artist récupère de la tapisserie (salvages tapestries) for his creations:

Donc c'est de la tapisserie qu'il récupère sur lequel [sic: laquelle] il peint et sur certaines même il refait des empiècements en tissu...

So it's tapestry that he salvages on which he paints and on some he even remakes fabric inserts...

Captions 36-39, Le saviez-vous? L'art figuratif de Lucien Murat
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You can also récupérer animals instead of objects, though you wouldn't "salvage animals" in English. Rather, you'd "rescue" them:

Depuis deux mille huit, une équipe de bénévoles qui s'occupent de récupérer et de soigner les animaux sauvages qui ont été blessés.

Since two thousand eight, [it's] a team of volunteers who are concerned with rescuing and taking care of wild animals that have been injured.

Captions 11-14, Le Monde Sauver les animaux sauvages ? C'est la mission de cette clinique - Part 1
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Sometimes récupérer is not so much an intentional act. In some circumstances, it just means that something ends up in your possession, like the parents in this video, who become the proud owners of a piano:

Je suis né à Paris en France et j'ai commencé à faire du piano vers l'âge de huit ans, un petit peu par hasard, puisque j'ai récupéré, euh... Mes parents ont récupéré un piano...

I was born in Paris, France, and I started to play the piano at around eight years of age, kind of by accident, because I, came into possession of... My parents came into possession of a piano...

Captions 3-4, Alex Terrier Le musicien et son jazz
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Indeed, some of the things we récupère, or end up with, are outside of our control. As Lionel points out in his video, we don’t always récupère (inherit) the same characteristics as our siblings:

Moi, mes origines, euh... même si j'ai appris récemment que face à nos parents, on ne récupère pas la même chose avec nos frères et sœurs...

Me, my origins, uh... even though I recently learned that vis-à-vis our parents, we don't get [inherit] the same thing as our brothers and sisters...

Captions 39-41, Sara et Lionel Le bronzage
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On the other hand, we often do want to récupérer or regain what used to belong to us. In the example below, the city of Soissons récupéra l'abbaye (got the abbey back) after a long occupation during the French Revolution:

Ce n'est qu'en mille neuf cent soixante-dix que la ville de Soissons récupéra l'abbaye.

It's only in nineteen seventy that the town of Soissons got the abbey back.

Captions 27-28, Voyage en France Soissons - Part 4
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That said, though récupérer can mean “to get something back," it can also mean the complete opposite! Sometimes, the idea “of picking up” or “retrieving” is completely lost, and in familiar language, récupérer simply means “to find”:

Il a récupéré l'adresse du bureau de la jeune femme.

He found the young woman's office address.

Caption 4, Le Jour où tout a basculé Mes parents se préparent à la fin du monde - Part 5
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Récupérer has yet another meaning that may surprise you. It can mean “to make up for something," like loss of sleep for Sophie, who hopes to make up for it tomorrow:

Non, non, non. Je me dis que je récupérerai le lendemain...

No, no, no. I tell myself that I'll make it up the next day...

Caption 19, Sophie et Patrice Je n'ai pas beaucoup dormi
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As you can see, récupérer has a wide range of meanings best determined by context. The good news is that you can use this handy verb for just about any situation, as our many Yabla examples will attest. We hope you have récupéré a lot of interesting ideas!

Topics Vocabulary