Enregistrer or inscrire
Two verbs that confuse many people.
This is because, in Russian, the verbs meaning “to register” and “to record” can often be used interchangeably.
In French, such freedom is also sometimes permissible, but only with the reflexive form of these verbs - s’enregistrer and s’inscrire.
For example, when you register or sign up for an event:
▪️Je me suis enregistré. = Je me suis inscrit au wébinaire.
This leads to another example with cognate nouns:
▪️Pour accéder à l’événement il faut passer la procédure d’enregistrement = la procédure d’inscription
But such a replacement, even with a return form, is not always possible, for example, s’inscrire pour son vol à l’aéroport will sound strange, just like s’enregistrer à l’université, although in general it is completely clear what we are talking about.
As for the irreversible form inscrire, it is used with people and animals:
▪️inscrire un enfant à l’école
▪️inscrire un chien au Livre des origines français pour confirmer la pureté de la race
And enregistrer – with inanimate nouns:
▪️enregistrer ses bagages à l’aéroport
▪️enregistrer un record
▪️enregistrer une vidéo
▪️enregistrer un nouvel album
▪️enregistrer les battements du coeur
Obviously, enregistrer has much more meanings - not only ‘to register, record’, but also ‘to record, state, save’ depending on the context.
I hope I helped some of you figure it out.
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