Present Tense of Avoir and Être

Avoir (‘to have’) and être (‘to be’) are two of the most commonly used verbs in both French and English, so it makes sense to start with these as you will be using them all the time! In this lesson, we take a look first at the present tense of these two verbs, but first of all, what exactly is a verb, what do we mean by ‘person‘ and what is the present tense all about?

What is a verb?

While nouns are words to name things (such as ‘the cat,’ ‘the dog,’ or ‘the table’), verbs enable us to associate actions or states to those things. This is why they are also often called ‘doing-words.’ For example, in the phrases, “The cat sleeps,” “The dog barks,” and, “The table stands in the hallway,” ‘sleeps,’ ‘barks‘ and ‘stands‘ are all verbs.

As you can see, a noun doesn’t have to be doing much in order for it to be associated with an action. You could equally say, “The table is in the hallway,” and the word ‘is‘ is a verb that expresses the mere existence of something as the action!

The actions of ‘being’ and ‘having’ are, however, important and therefore avoir, ‘to have’ and être, ‘to be’ must be thoroughly learned.

In English, the neutral form of a verb, or rather the infinitive, is made up of two words. ‘To have,’ ‘to be,’ ‘to play,’ ‘to run,’ and ‘to sleep’ are all examples of the infinitive verb form. In French, only one word is used for the infinitive and this word ends in either -ir, –re or –er.

Therefore ‘to have’ is simply avoir and ‘to be’ is être. Similarly, ‘to sleep’ is dormir and ‘to eat’ is manger.

What do we mean by ‘person?’

Who is doing the action?

If you are telling a story from your own perspective and you are talking about yourself, then this is called a first person narrative. You would use ‘I’ in the narrative, such as “I awoke early.” Even more specifically, this is the first person singular. If you are including yourself and one or more other people in your narrative, you use ‘we,’ so, for example, “We awoke early.” This is the first person plural.

The second person, meanwhile, refers to those who are being addressed from the speaker’s perspective and is represented by the word ‘you.’ Again, this could be one person (second person singular) or multiple people (second person plural).

If the person, animal or thing being referred to is outside of this speaker-addressee relationship at this time, then we use the third person, represented by ‘he,’ ‘she,’ or ‘it,’ in the third person singular, or ‘they,’ in the third person plural.

Person	English	French
First person singular	I	je
Second person singular	you	tu
Third person singular	he / she / it	il / elle
First person plural	we	nous
Second person plural	you	vous
Third person plural	they	ils / elles

Whether the verb being used is going to describe an action in the first, second or third person singular or plural is important, as it governs the form of the verb that is used, or its endings.

So, for example, in English, ‘to have’ becomes ‘she has.’ Or, ‘to be’ becomes ‘they are.’ To begin with, we just have to learn these changes by heart to get them right, both in English or French. However, over time, as you learn them, you’ll notice patterns emerging that will help you gain confidence in forming the right expressions yourself.

In fact, some verbs follow the same pattern every time and these are known as regular verbs. Others, such as avoir and être do not – and these are known as irregular verbs.

What is the present tense?

We saw how verbs change their form according to person, but they also change their form depending on when the action that they are referring to takes place, either in the present, the past or the future.

The first verb tables we’ll learn in a moment are all in the present tense.

For example, ‘I eat,’ ‘I am eating’ or ‘I do eat’ are all referred to as present tense, as they all relate to something that is currently happening. ‘I ate,’ on the other hand, is in the past, and ‘I will eat’ is in the future.

The good news for learning French is that the present tense forms found in English (‘I eat,’ ‘I am eating’ or ‘I do eat’) are all the same in French. Je mange covers them all!

What is the present tense of avoir (‘to have’)?

So let’s make a start with avoir – ‘to have.’ This is irregular, so it needs to be learnt by heart. Here is the French present tense of avoir, along with the English translations.

French	English
j’ai	I have, I am having, I do have
tu as	you have, you are having, you do have
il a / elle a	he has, he is having, he does have / she has, she is having, she does have
nous avons	we have, we are having, we do have
vous avez	you have, you are having, you do have
ils ont / elles ont	they have, they are having, they do have

You’ll notice that je turns into j’ when the next word begins with a vowel sound, simply in order to make it easier to say.

What is the present tense of être (‘to be’)?

This is also irregular and is formed as follows:

French	English
je suis	I am
tu es	you are
il est / elle est	he is
nous sommes	we are
vous êtes	you are
ils sont / elles sont	they are