prendre

"To take," used far more broadly than in English: to take transportation (prendre le bus), to eat/drink (prendre un café), and to take time (ça prend du temps). Irregular in a way that doesn't follow the usual -re pattern, so it's worth learning on its own.

• Je prends le train à huit heures. — I take the train at eight o'clock.
• On prend un verre ? — Shall we get a drink?
• Ça prend combien de temps ? — How long does that take?

Reaching for boire ("to drink") or manger ("to eat") when prendre is the more natural choice in a café/restaurant context — je prends un café is far more idiomatic than je bois un café for ordering.

• politics La prise de la Bastille — The storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, the opening event of the French Revolution — "prise" is the noun form of prendre's past participle, and the date became France's national holiday in 1880.
• expression Prendre le taureau par les cornes — "To take the bull by the horns" — a French idiom for confronting a problem head-on, attested in French since at least the 18th century.