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?
Not that kind of debutant
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
Elle a un chien
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 ?
For more vocabulary pour se décrire (to describe oneself), try this Byki list :
http://www.byki.com/lists/FRENCH/337298984000000181176.html
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.
