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Avoir - To Have: Have A French Verb

Avoir is one of the most important French verbs, meaning "to have" but also serving as an auxiliary verb. It is irregularly conjugated and is used in many idiomatic expressions. Specifically, avoir can mean: 1) To have, possess, be experiencing or suffering from something 2) To serve as an auxiliary verb for compound tenses 3) To equivalent to "be" in over a dozen common phrases describing things like age, temperature, luck, hunger, and more. 4) To be found in idiomatic expressions describing things like desirability, mood, hunger, and unrelatedness.

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332 views3 pages

Avoir - To Have: Have A French Verb

Avoir is one of the most important French verbs, meaning "to have" but also serving as an auxiliary verb. It is irregularly conjugated and is used in many idiomatic expressions. Specifically, avoir can mean: 1) To have, possess, be experiencing or suffering from something 2) To serve as an auxiliary verb for compound tenses 3) To equivalent to "be" in over a dozen common phrases describing things like age, temperature, luck, hunger, and more. 4) To be found in idiomatic expressions describing things like desirability, mood, hunger, and unrelatedness.

Uploaded by

Samira Yağlıca
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Avoir – to have

Avoir le monde dans sa poche …

Have a French Verb


Avoir is one of the two most important French verbs (être is the other one) and has
irregular conjugations in just about every tense and mood. Avoir literally means "to
have," but also serves an an auxiliary verb and is found in many idiomatic expressions.

Avoir = to have, possess


J’ai une voiture bleue.   I have a blue car.

As-tu un numéro   Do you have a cell phone number?


portable ?

Avoir = to have, be experiencing, be suffering from


J’ai mal au   I have a backache.
dos.

Il a la grippe.   He has the flu.

Avoir = to have, dupe, con


J’ai été eu.   I’ve been had.
Je t’ai bien   I got you!
eu !

Avoir = auxiliary verb


For the vast majority of French verbs, avoir serves as the auxiliary verb in the compound
tenses and moods.

Nous avons déjà mangé.   We’ve already eaten.

Auras-tu fini avant midi  ?   Will you have finished before noon?

S’il avait vendu la voiture, il vous aurez   If he’d sold the car, he would have
remboursé. reimbursed you.

 Avoir = to be
In more than a dozen common phrases, avoir is equivalent to "be" in English.

avoir __ ans   to be __ (years old)

avoir chaud   to be hot

avoir de la chance   to be lucky

avoir faim   to be hungry

avoir froid   to be cold

avoir honte   to be ashamed

avoir l’habitude de   to be in the habit of, used to

avoir mal au cœur   to be sick to one’s stomach


avoir mal de mer   to be seasick

avoir __ mètres (de haut, de   to be __ meters (high, long)


long)

avoir peur   to be afraid

avoir raison   to be right

avoir soif   to be thirsty

avoir sommeil   to be sleepy

avoir tort   to be wrong

il y a   there is, there are

Avoir in idiomatic expressions


Avoir is also found in dozens of idiomatic expressions, including

 avoir du chien (informal) – to be desirable


 avoir le cafard (informal) – to feel low, blue
 avoir un petit creux (informal) – to be a little hungry
 n’avoir rien à voir avec/dans – to have nothing to do with

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