Verb Avoir (to have) – How to use it?
Avoir is an irregular French verb that means “to have”. It is one of the most used French verbs which also include: être, aller and faire. This is the verb of the third group, irregular verb, and its conjugation must be memorized.
- J’ai deux voitures > I have two cars.
- Elena a trois frères > Elena has 3 brothers.
- J’ai une idée > I have an idea.
Avoir is used in a number of expressions, many of which are translated by the English verb “to be”. Below are some of them:
- avoir faim — to be hungry
- avoir soif — to be thirsty
- avoir raison — to be right (avoir une raison — to have a reason)
- avoir peur de … — to be scared of…
- avoir besoin de … — have a need for something…
- avoir chaud / froid — to be cold/hot
- avoir sommeil — to be sleepy
- avoir __ ans — to be __ years old
- avoir raison / tort — to be right/wrong
- avoir envie de — to want
Some abstract expressions require a partial article (de or du — it is not a preposition):
- avoir du courage — to be brave
- avoir de la chance — to be lucky
- avoir l’habitude de … — to have a habit to do something
- avoir la patience de … — to have the patience to do something
- avoir le droit de … — to have a right to do something
Avoir + à + Infinitif
Avoir + à + Infinitif – This formula is used for the need or obligation to do something. In English, we say “I need to …”
j’ai un texte à traduire — I need to translate the text
Avoir is an auxiliary verb, which combines with the past participle of the primary verb for most French verbs to form a compound tense, such as “passé composé”. Verbs that don’t use avoir, use être as their auxiliary verb.
📌And one more important grammatical moment: after the verb avoir in the negative form, all the articles are replaced with the preposition de.
- J’ai un frère – Je n’ai pas de frère
- Nous avons un fils – Nous n’avons pas de fils
Hope this article was useful for you and informative. Do you know other expressions with AVOIR? Also share your thoughts, which makes you struggle in learning french, so we will be covering those topics in the next article.
A bientôt nos amis!
Author
Yana Solodkova
Founder of Choice to Speak & Choice to Travel. Business Analyst. Hyperflexible stubborn.
- Vocabulary Learning: an easy way to memorize new words
Arabic presents some challenges to the beginner trying to learn vocabulary, as both the words and the script are unfamiliar. However, you can use strategies to help yourself. - 20 Methods of Memorizing Foreign Words
Before we move on to 20 ways to memorize words, I want to give you some general helpful guidelines and useful dictionaries. - Movies Vocabulary
The best way to remember things is to visualize! That’s why we come up with an idea to create infographics to explain Arabic grammar, build your vocabulary, and much more. More infographics you can find on our website.
