Être and avoir are the two most important French verbs. They form the backbone of every compound tense in the language — passé composé, plus-que-parfait, futur antérieur, subjonctif passé — and they appear in dozens of everyday fixed expressions. If you're preparing for TCF, DELF, or DALF, learn these two verbs cold before anything else.
The Present Tense of Être (To Be)
Être is fully irregular — none of its forms can be derived from a pattern. It must be memorised outright.
| Pronoun | Form |
|---|---|
| je | suis |
| tu | es |
| il / elle / on | est |
| nous | sommes |
| vous | êtes |
| ils / elles | sont |
Core uses of être: identity (Je suis étudiant.), nationality (Elle est française.), profession without article (Il est médecin.), location (Nous sommes à Paris.), description (C'est difficile.), and as the auxiliary verb for a specific group of verbs in compound tenses.
The Present Tense of Avoir (To Have)
Avoir is equally irregular in the present tense. The h in j'ai, il a is silent, and the final s in as and avez is not pronounced on its own but reappears in liaison.
| Pronoun | Form |
|---|---|
| j' | ai |
| tu | as |
| il / elle / on | a |
| nous | avons |
| vous | avez |
| ils / elles | ont |
Core uses of avoir: possession (J'ai une voiture.), age (Elle a 25 ans. — French uses avoir, not être, for age), and as the auxiliary verb for most verbs in compound tenses.
Être and Avoir as Auxiliary Verbs in the Passé Composé
The passé composé is formed with an auxiliary verb (être or avoir) plus the past participle. The vast majority of French verbs use avoir. A specific, learnable group uses être instead — and with être, the past participle must agree in gender and number with the subject.
Verbs that take être are commonly memorised through the mnemonic "Dr & Mrs Vandertramp," where each letter stands for a verb:
- Devenir (to become), Revenir (to come back)
- Monter (to go up), Rester (to stay), Sortir (to go out)
- Venir (to come), Aller (to go), Naître (to be born)
- Descendre (to go down), Entrer (to enter), Rentrer (to return home)
- Tomber (to fall), Retourner (to return), Arriver (to arrive)
- Mourir (to die), Partir (to leave)
All pronominal (reflexive) verbs also take être: se lever, se laver, se souvenir.
Preply
Apprendre une langue avec un tuteur en ligne
Elle est partie hier soir. (She left last night.) — partir takes être; the participle agrees: partie.
Nous avons mangé à midi. (We ate at noon.) — manger takes avoir; no agreement.
Fixed Expressions With Avoir You Need to Know
French uses avoir — not être — in a number of expressions where English uses "to be." These trip up learners at every level and appear regularly in exam reading and writing tasks.
| French (with avoir) | English equivalent |
|---|---|
| avoir faim / soif | to be hungry / thirsty |
| avoir chaud / froid | to be hot / cold |
| avoir peur (de) | to be afraid (of) |
| avoir raison / tort | to be right / wrong |
| avoir besoin de | to need |
| avoir envie de | to feel like / want to |
| avoir sommeil | to be sleepy |
| avoir mal à | to have pain/ache in |
| avoir de la chance | to be lucky |
Verbs That Can Take Either Être or Avoir (With Different Meanings)
A small but important group of verbs can use either auxiliary depending on whether they're transitive (take a direct object) or intransitive. The auxiliary choice completely changes the meaning: with a direct object, use avoir; with no object, use être. This distinction appears regularly in B2 and C1 exam writing tasks — getting it right signals genuine understanding of the auxiliary system.
| Verb | Intransitive (être) | Transitive with object (avoir) |
|---|---|---|
| sortir | Elle est sortie hier soir. (she went out) | Elle a sorti la poubelle. (she took out the trash) |
| monter | Il est monté dans sa chambre. (he went up) | Il a monté les valises. (he brought up the suitcases) |
| descendre | Nous sommes descendus. (we went down) | Nous avons descendu les valises. (we brought down the suitcases) |
| passer | Elle est passée chez moi. (she stopped by) | Elle a passé un examen. (she took an exam — a well-known false friend, not "passed") |
| retourner | Il est retourné en France. (he went back) | Il a retourné la carte. (he turned over the card) |
Frequently Asked Questions
Do reflexive verbs ever take avoir?
No — pronominal/reflexive verbs (se lever, se souvenir, se dépêcher) always take être in compound tenses, with no exceptions, regardless of what the base verb would normally take.
Does the participle always agree with être verbs?
For the Dr & Mrs Vandertramp verbs, yes — the past participle agrees in gender and number with the subject (elle est partie, ils sont partis). For reflexive verbs the agreement rule is more nuanced and depends on whether the reflexive pronoun is a direct or indirect object.
Why does "passer un examen" mean "to take an exam," not "to pass"?
This is one of the most common false-friend errors for English speakers — passer un examen simply means to sit/take the exam. "To pass" an exam is réussir un examen.
How to Practise Être and Avoir
The most effective way to internalise both verbs is to practise their conjugations across multiple tenses — not just the present, but also the imparfait (j'étais, j'avais), the futur simple (je serai, j'aurai), and the conditionnel (je serais, j'aurais), since all of these appear in B1–C1 exam writing tasks.
Use the French Verb Conjugator to pull up the complete conjugation table for être and avoir across all tenses. Work through each column systematically — present, imparfait, passé composé, futur, conditionnel, subjonctif — until you can produce every form without looking. These two verbs are the most frequently used in the French language; the time investment pays back immediately. For the passé composé vs imparfait choice itself, see Passé Composé vs Imparfait: How to Choose Every Time.
