The French Verbs

12/15/2025 Learning & Grammar created by Sprachcaffe Team

How to use and translate the French verbs être and avoir | The verbs "to be" and "to have" in French are among the fundamental grammatical rules you must study if you want to begin mastering this language.

It's practically impossible to form a meaningful conversation without them!

If we also consider that the verbs avere and essere are also used as auxiliary verbs in French , doing without them is simply unthinkable: they are used to create compound tenses and go beyond the simple present. In short, this is one of the very first things you should focus on if you're just starting out in French.

Luckily, you've stumbled upon this article, in which we'll discover the conjugation of the verbs "to be" and "to have" in French , the correct use of these two verbs, and we'll look at numerous examples to better understand the topic.

Age: 13-21

France

Learn French where glamour meets sunshine!

Être and Avoir: Conjugation and Use

Être (to be) and avoir (to have) are the two most important verbs in French. You need them for everyday statements and, just as importantly, as auxiliary verbs to build every compound tense. This guide from SPRACHCAFFE covers what each verb means, full conjugation tables, the useful avoir idioms, and the rule for which verbs take être or avoir as their auxiliary.

Être: uses

As a main verb, être ("to be") expresses:

Location: Je suis à la maison. → I am at home.
A quality: Le placard de la cuisine est vieux. → The kitchen cupboard is old.
Possession: Ce collier est à Julie. → This necklace is Julie's.
Profession or nationality: Vous êtes américain ? → Are you American?
Time: Il est neuf heures. → It's nine o'clock.

A note: the je form suis is identical to suis from suivre (to follow), so context tells them apart: Je suis italien mais je suis le football anglais → I am Italian but I follow English football.

Être in the simple tenses

Person	Present	Imperfect	Simple past	Future
je	suis	étais	fus	serai
tu	es	étais	fus	seras
il/elle	est	était	fut	sera
nous	sommes	étions	fûmes	serons
vous	êtes	étiez	fûtes	serez
ils/elles	sont	étaient	furent	seront

Examples: Nous sommes amis depuis l'école primaire (we've been friends since primary school); C'était il y a longtemps (it was a long time ago); Cette statue a été réalisée en 1902 (this statue was made in 1902).

Avoir: uses

As a main verb, avoir ("to have") expresses:

Possession: J'ai un rendez-vous chez le dentiste. → I have a dentist's appointment.
Physical characteristics: Elle a de longs cheveux auburn. → She has long auburn hair.
Age: J'ai vingt ans. → I am twenty years old.

Avoir in the simple tenses

Person	Present	Imperfect	Simple past	Future
j'	ai	avais	eus	aurai
tu	as	avais	eus	auras
il/elle	a	avait	eut	aura
nous	avons	avions	eûmes	aurons
vous	avez	aviez	eûtes	aurez
ils/elles	ont	avaient	eurent	auront

Examples: J'ai un nouveau pull aujourd'hui (I have a new jumper today); Nous avions un chien quand nous étions petits (we had a dog when we were little); Maria et Carlo ont un fils de trois ans (Maria and Carlo have a three-year-old son).

Common avoir idioms

French uses avoir where English uses "to be" for many states:

avoir faim / soif → to be hungry / thirsty
avoir froid / chaud → to be cold / hot
avoir peur (de) → to be afraid (of): Enfant, tu avais peur du noir. → As a child, you were afraid of the dark.
avoir raison / tort → to be right / wrong
avoir … ans → to be … years old
avoir besoin de → to need

Être and avoir as auxiliary verbs

Both verbs form compound tenses (like the passé composé) with a past participle. Their own participles are été (être) and eu (avoir), and être's compound tenses are built with avoir: J'ai été clair ? → Was I clear?

Avoir is the auxiliary for the large majority of verbs, including all transitive verbs (those taking a direct object) and impersonal weather/necessity verbs:

J'ai écouté ta chanson. → I listened to your song.
Nous avons acheté des bananes. → We bought bananas.
Il a plu tout le mois. → It rained all month.
Le chiffre d'affaires a augmenté de 30 %. → Turnover rose by 30%.

Être is the auxiliary for a set of intransitive verbs of movement and change of state, and for all pronominal (reflexive) verbs and the passive:

Lorsque Joe est arrivé, il n'y avait personne. → When Joe arrived, no one was there.
Quand il s'est levé ce matin, il faisait encore nuit. → When he got up this morning, it was still dark.
La carte est maintenant perdue. → The map is now lost.

The être verbs: DR MRS VANDERTRAMP

The verbs that take être are often remembered with the mnemonic DR MRS VANDERTRAMP: Devenir, Revenir, Monter, Rester, Sortir, Venir, Aller, Naître, Descendre, Entrer, Rentrer, Tomber, Retourner, Arriver, Mourir, Partir. With être, the past participle agrees with the subject: Elle est allée, ils sont partis.

Verbs that take either avoir or être

A few verbs (monter, descendre, sortir, passer, retourner) take être when used intransitively and avoir when used with a direct object, and the meaning shifts:

Je suis monté au sommet. → I went up to the top. (être, intransitive)
J'ai monté les valises. → I took the suitcases up. (avoir, transitive)
Il est descendu à la station. → He got off at the station. (être)
Avez-vous déjà sorti le chien ? → Have you taken the dog out yet? (avoir)

The other tenses

The full subjunctive, conditional, and compound-tense conjugations of être and avoir (built from the simple tenses above plus the participles été and eu) are provided in the tables that follow on the page; they are regular in construction once you know the simple tenses. For example, the passé composé of être is j'ai été, tu as été, il a été…

Back