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Conjugation
Objective: Use avoir to express age, possession, and physical states across all six subject pronouns.
| Pronoun | Form | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| je (or j' before a vowel) | ai | ay | I have |
| tu | as | ah | you have (informal) |
| il / elle / on | a | ah | he, she, one has |
| nous | avons | ah-von | we have |
| vous | avez | ah-vay | you have (formal or plural) |
| ils / elles | ont | on (nasal) | they have |
Je elides to j' before any vowel, and the a in ai forces the contraction without exception.
Physical states such as hunger use avoir, not être, so French says she has hunger rather than she is hungry.
The elided form j'ai is used because ai begins with a vowel. The je form never appears separately.
As is the second-person singular form. The s at the end is silent.
Age uses avoir, not être. French literally says she has twenty years.
The obligatory liaison links nous and avons, producing the sound noo-zah-von.
The liaison links vous and avez to produce voo-zah-vay. The question mark makes the sentence a question without changing word order.
5 exercises · about 8 minutes
The s in ils links to the vowel in ont, and skipping this obligatory liaison sounds unnatural.
Nous pairs with avons, while ont belongs to the third-person plural pronouns ils and elles.
The fixed expression avoir soif means to be thirsty, following the same pattern as avoir faim.
The expression avoir besoin de means to need. The possessive structure uses avoir and a following de phrase.