Avoir (to have)

Avoir means 'to have' in French.

It is important to know how to use avoir as it is the second most common verb in French. It's useful to be able to talk about what you have or don't have.‎

Avoir is an irregular verb. Regular verbs follow the same pattern, but irregular verbs don’t.

If you want to say 'I have' in French, you say:

• J’ai – I have

• J’ai le ballon – I have the ball

The form of avoir changes as the person doing the verb changes.

When writing the question in French, you leave a space between the final word and the question mark.

A simple way to ask questions using avoir is to rise your intonation at the end of the statement. This means that your voice goes up at the end of a sentence, turning it into a question.

Can you hear the difference between these questions and statements?

• Tu as le ballon – You have the ball

• Tu as le ballon ? – Have you got the ball?

• Elle a le ballon – She has the ball

• Elle a le ballon ? – Has she got the ball?

You can use the verb avoir in lots of different phrases.

You can say how many things you have:

• J’ai un chien – I have a dog

• J’ai deux chiens – I have two dogs

• J’ai trois chiens – I have three dogs

You can use it to ask for objects in class:

• Tu as un crayon? – Do you have a pencil?

• Oui, j’ai un crayon – Yes, I have a pencil

You can describe yourself:

• J’ai les cheveux longs – I have long hair

• J’ai les cheveux courts – I have short hair

• J’ai les yeux bleus – I have blue eyes

• J’ai les yeux marron – I have brown eyes

You can say if something is hurting:

To make a negative in French we add ne and pasaround the verb.

However, because avoir starts with a vowel, the ne becomes n’:

• J’ai (I have) becomes Je n’ai pas (I don’t have)
• Tu as (you have) becomes Tu n’as pas (you don’t have)
• Il / elle a (he/she has) becomes either il n’a pas (he doesn’t have) or elle n’a pas (she doesn’t have)

With a negative sentence in French, we replace the indefinite articles (un, une or des) with de. So to say, 'I don’t have a cat' we would say Je n’ai pas de chat.

Examples:

• Je n’ai pas de frères - I don’t have any brothers
• Je n’ai pas de crayon - I don’t have a pencil
• Tu n’as pas de sœurs ? - You don’t have any sisters ?
• Il n’a pas de chien - He doesn’t have a dog
• Elle n’a pas de cheval - She doesn’t have a horse

Did you know?

In English, we use the verb 'to be' to describe how we are, but in French, you sometimes use the verb 'to have':

• J’ai faim – I am hungry

• J’ai soif – I am thirsty

• J’ai chaud – I am hot

• J’ai froid – I am cold

• J’ai peur – I am frightened

In English, you also use the verb 'to be' to say how old you are but in French, you use the verb 'to have':

• J’ai sept ans – I am seven years old

• J’ai huit ans – I am eight years old

• J’ai neuf ans – I am nine years old

• J’ai dix ans – I am ten years old

Key French words