How French works

The verb avoir in the present tense

Key points

  • Another very common irregular verb is avoir which means to have.
  • It is mostly used to express the word have in English, but can also be used to express to be.

The verb avoir means to have and is an irregular verb . This means that it does not follow a standard pattern like -er or -ir verbs.

In the present tense avoir conjugates like this:

Table 5: irregular verbs
avoir to have
j' ai
tu as
il / elle a
nous avons
vous avez
ils / elles ont

Note

Be careful, though. There are quite a few instances where French uses avoir and English uses to be:

J’ai faim

I’m hungry

J’ai chaud

I’m hot

Avoir is mostly used to express the word have in English:

Nous avons deux chats

We have two cats

Tu as des frères?

Do you have any brothers?

Ils ont quatre enfants

They have four children

Je n’ai pas le temps d’attendre

I don’t have time to wait

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How French Works was written and coded by Chris Dawson.