désespérer

Works two ways: intransitively with de (désespérer de réussir, désespérer de quelqu'un — to despair of succeeding, of someone) and transitively meaning to drive someone to despair (ce silence me désespère). The transitive use, with no preposition and a direct object, is the one English speakers most often get wrong.

• Elle ne désespère jamais de trouver une solution. — She never despairs of finding a solution.
• Ce genre de nouvelles me désespère. — This kind of news drives me to despair.
• Il ne faut pas désespérer, la situation peut s'améliorer. — You mustn't despair, the situation can improve.

Learners translate "I despair of him" as *je désespère de lui* when talking about someone's behavior disappointing them — that's actually correct for the "give up hope in someone" sense, but they then wrongly extend de to the transitive use too (*ça me désespère de* is wrong; it's simply ça me désespère, no preposition).

• politics "Désespérer Billancourt" — A famous catchphrase of French political discourse, traced to Jean-Paul Sartre's 1955 play Nekrassov — though the exact popular wording is actually a later conflation of two separate lines Sartre wrote in the play, not a direct quote.