discriminer
/dis.kʁi.mi.ne/
To discriminate in French is discriminer.
Discriminer is used to describe the act of making decisions or treating people based on prejudice. In more formal or legal contexts, you might see the phrases Faire preuve de discrimination, which means to display discriminatory behavior or Exercer une discrimination, which means to exercise discrimination within a professional or institutional environment.
Meaning: to make decisions based on prejudice (verb)
Which one should you use?
It is important to distinguish discriminer from distinguer. While discriminer specifically refers to unfair treatment based on prejudice, distinguer is used for the neutral act of perceiving or noting a difference between things.
How does it change in a sentence?
Discriminer is a transitive verb, which means it takes a direct object. You discriminate someone directly. You do not discriminate 'against' someone in the French structure.
How do you pronounce it?
/dis.kʁi.mi.ne/
What mistakes should you avoid?
English speakers often mistakenly say discriminer contre to mean 'to discriminate against'. In French, do not use the preposition contre. Simply use the verb directly with the person being discriminated against.
Did you know?
- While modern usage is almost exclusively negative, very old French literature occasionally used discrimination to describe a positive intellectual skill. In those contexts, it referred to the ability to perceive subtle, fine differences between things.
- In the scientific fields of biology and acoustics, discriminer can be a neutral term. It is used to describe the capacity of an organism or a sense to differentiate between two specific stimuli.
- The verb discriminer is derived from the Latin discrimināre, which originally meant 'to separate' or 'to set apart'.
Examples in context
- Tu ne devrais pas discriminer les gens en vertu de leur sexe.You should not discriminate against people based on their gender.This sentence illustrates how to use discriminer in the context of gender.Tatoeba #826848 by sacredceltic, translation #1726889 by belgavox
- Les entreprises ne devraient jamais discriminer sur la base de l'âge, du sexe ou de la religion.Companies should never discriminate based on age, gender, or religion.
- Malheureusement, certaines personnes pratiquent toujours la discrimination dans le domaine de l'embauche.Unfortunately, some people still practice discrimination in the field of hiring.
- Il ne faut pas discriminer les employés.One must not discriminate against employees.
- La loi interdit de discriminer selon l'âge.The law prohibits discriminating based on age.
Example conversation
Lucas and Manon are discussing fairness in the workplace.
- LucasL'entreprise ne doit pas discriminer ses employés.The company must not discriminate against its employees.
- ManonJe suis d'accord, c'est essentiel pour tout le monde.I agree, it's essential for everyone.
- LucasOn doit traiter chaque personne avec respect.We must treat every person with respect.
- ManonC'est la base d'un environnement de travail sain.That's the basis of a healthy work environment.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “discriminate” translations and entries discriminer, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries discriminer, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
