Apporter, Emporter, Amener, Emmener

Gee whiz, do these words cause pain for students of French and, quite frankly, for French speakers too. In theory they mean to take and to bring (we will get to this shortly) but because they are so similar I am hardly surprised that French speakers sometimes get these wrong.

First, let us clarify the difference between those words that contain "porter" and those that contain "mener". Think about the English word "porter". A porter is someone who carries things. Thus,  "apporter" and "emporter" are only used when referring to things. The word "mener" means to lead. One does not lead a thing but rather people and animals. Thus, "amener" and "emmener" are for people and animals.

Now let us turn to the "a" and "em" parts of the words. These are the things that caused the most trouble for me when learning these words. The way I remembered them is to say to myself that "a" means "to" and conversely "em" means "from". This is not really true but a little lie is fine if it helps the learning process. Another way to look at "a" and "em" is to realise that "a" implies leaving someone or something somewhere (you are taking someone or something to somewhere) and "em" means "with" (the thing or person stays with you).

Let us apply these to make sense of the words. "Apporter" implies moving something from here to there (where 'here' and 'there' are do not matter). Consider this sentence: "J'apporterai le livre". If we translate this badly, we could say it means "I will carry the book to (somewhere)". In other words, it means "I will take the book (to you)" or "I will bring the book (to you)". Notice how I have translated the same thing using the word "take" in one translation but "bring" in the next. Understand this well: there is no word in French exactly equivalent to "bring" or to "take (to a place)" for that matter. The moment you try to associate any of these French words with any one specific English word, you will be in trouble.

Suppose someone said "J'ai emporté le livre", it would mean, if translated poorly "I carried the book with". Translated more correctly this would mean "I brought the book (with me)".

Here is an example that helped me quite a bit: "Je l'ammène à l'hôtel". It means "I am taking him to his hotel". The idea is that I am going to a place, the hotel, and that I am leaving him there. I will not stay with him.

I once saw an advert with the words "Emmène-moi en Suisse". What do you think the advert was saying?