Confused about "prends"?

[Rosedash]

Hello!

I was strengthening my skills and came across the sentence, "Je prends le diner," which means I eat dinner. But couldn't I use mange here instead? Why would it be prends? When should I use prend?

Thanks!

[OllieJN]

Prendre = to take, to have

Prendre means to have when it's relating to food. So, Je prends le diner I have dinner (basically, I eat dinner).

You could use manger here, it's just the difference between I have (prends) dinner and I eat (mange) dinner.

Use prendre when you're talking about having or eating food.

Je prends le diner. Vous ne prenez pas de pain perdu. Etc.

Hope this helped.

[Rosedash]

Oh, I see! Thank you so much!

[Prenom.Pierre]

https://www.duolingo.com/comment/26393805

Look at this link, on the Spanish forum, a comrade has written a very good text that answers your question, it is in French (almost perfect) but make the effort to read it (use an online dictionary for help you translating it.)

[Seattle_Scott]

It’s used a lot in French. Je vais prendre le petit dejeuner...
it’s just a commonly used expression