Bonjour mes amis débutants! (Hello, my beginner friends!) Hichem and I have so much fun exploring French slang, literature and culture, that we sometimes forget that not everyone is ready for tout ça (all that). Starting ce soir (tonight), we’ll begin Beginner Posts, especially aimed at les débutants who are just starting to learn French. Ça vous dit? Does that sound good to you?

For the inaugural post, we have to start with this essential verb (hint, hint)…

Avoir :   to have

Avoir is an irregular verb, meaning its conjugation does not follow a pattern repeated by other verbs (like most verbs ending in –er, -ir or –re. More on this to come!).

La conjugaison d’avoir :

J’ai : I have

Tu as : You have

Il a / Elle a /On a : He has / She has/ One has (the general “one,” or “they”)

Nous avons : We have

Vous avez : You have (formal « you » or plural « you »)

Ils ont / Elles ont : They have (all male or mixed male/female) / They have (all female)

 

This might still seem confusing, but it’s enough to get started making des phrases (sentences).

Par exemple (for example):

J’ai un frère : I have one brother

Nous avons beaucoup de travail : We have a lot of work

Vous avez un joli sourire : You have a pretty smile (formal)

Tu as un chien : You have a dog

Naturellement, avoir can also be used to form questions:

“Tu as un chien?” You have a dog?

There are other, more complicated (and more formal) ways to form questions, but adding un point d’interrogation (a question mark) is the simplest.*

Besides free-styling, there are many phrases that use avoir, including:

Avoir faim : to be hungry

Avoir soif: to be thirsty

Avoir sommeil : to be sleepy

Avoir besoin de : to need (ex.  J’ai besoin de dormir : I need to sleep)

Avoir raison : to be right

Avoir tort : to be wrong

Another convenient use of avoir is to describe people, including oneself.

Par exemple :

J’ai les cheveux blondes et les yeux bleus : I have blond hair and blue eyes.

Et vous ? And you ?

Surtout n’hésitez pas de poser des questions—don’t be afraid to ask questions! J’espère que ça vous a aidé (I hope this helped you). À la prochaine—until next time !

*We can do a whole Beginner’s Post là-dessus (on that), but the other ways to form questions are:

Inversion: As-tu un chien? : Do you have a dog ?

Est-ce que: Est-ce que tu as un chien? : Do you have a dog ?

The meaning is the same, but there are subtleties in tone. Stay tuned.