Avoir: How To Use it, Conjugation And Examples

The verb avoir

The verb “avoir” is a French verb that means “to have” and it’s used to express ownership or possession, for example, “They have a pool” or “I have a car”. It can also be used to express states or feelings, such as “I’m scared” or “You are hungry”.

Additionally, “avoir” is used to form compound verb tenses, such as the passé composé (I have arrived), the past perfect (we had arrived), and the future perfect (they will have arrived). Understanding the different uses of “avoir” is essential for learning and communicating effectively in French. It is the second most used verb in French after the verb “être”.

Conjugation of avoir in the present tense

French	English
J’ai (Je ai)	I have
Tu as	You have
Il / Elle a	He / She / It has
Nous avons	We have
Ils / Elles ont	They have

Examples or sentences of avoir

J’ai une voiture. – I have a car.
Tu as mangé une pomme. – You have eaten an apple.
Elle a une belle sourire. – She has a beautiful smile.
Ils ont vu le film. – They have seen the film.
Vous avez des belles plantes. – You have beautiful pants.

How to use avoir

Avoir has two uses, one as a main verb where it expresses ownership and feelings and another as an auxiliary verb to express actions or events.

Property or possesion

Subject + verb avoir + what is owned or possessed

Le jardin + a + une piscine. – The garden + has + a pool.
Le chien a une balle. – The dog has a ball.
Le fille a les yeux noirs. – The girl has back eyes.
Ils ont un problème. – They have a problem.
Nous avons une maison petite. – We have a small house.
Ils ont des chemises rouges. – They have red shirts.

Feelings or states

Subject + avoir + complement (the feeling)

Elles ont faim – Thery ae hungry.
Tu as froid. – You’re cold.
J’ai peur. – I’m scared.

Avoir as an auxiliary verb

As an auxiliary verb, “avoir” is used to form compound tenses in French, as in the passé compossé. An auxiliary verb is a verb that accompanies and complements another main verb. In the sentence “I have seen it”, the main verb is “seen” and the auxiliary verb is “have”.

Subject + Auxiliary Verb (Avoir) + Main Verb + Complement

J’ai mangé un crêpe. – I have eaten a crêpe.
Il a coupé la viande. – He has cut the meat.

In the previous sentences, avoir is the auxiliary and “to eat” and “to cut” are the main ones. Let’s now see the conjugation of the verb avoir as an auxiliary to the verb “acheter” (buy).

Subject	Present perfect	English
Je	ai acheté	I have bought
Tu	as acheté	You have bought
Il / Elle	a acheté	He / She / It has bought
Nous	avons acheté	We have bought
Ils / Elles	ont acheté	They have bought

A detailed explanation of the “passé composé” tense is beyond the scope of this lesson, and it is briefly mentioned here to illustrate the use of “avoir”.

Avoir in l’imparfait

In French, “l’imparfait” is commonly used in everyday conversations to express an action or fact that happened in the past and may still be relevant to the present moment. This tense is also used in other romance languages. For example, “Elena played” could be expressed in “l’imparfait” tense in French as “Elena jouait”.

French	English
J’ avais (Je avais)	I had
Tu avais	You had
Il / elle / avait	He/ She had
Nous avions	We had
Vous aviez	You had
Ils / elles avaient	They had

Examples

Vous aviez un magasin. – You had a store.
Il avait une copine. – He had a girlfriend.
J’avais un ami en Venezuela. – I had a friend in Venezuela.

Contraction

A contraction is a shorter way of writing two words by removing one or more letters. In French, contractions are often made with the first-person singular pronoun “Je” (meaning “I”).

For example, instead of writing “Je ai un travail” (which means “I have a job”), you can use the contraction “J’ai un travail”. This contraction is formed by removing the letter “e” from “Je” and replacing it with an apostrophe.

Exercises

Now practice the verb avoir with the following test or exercises.