# Avoir Conjugation — Every Tense of the French Verb “To Have”

> **Avoir** means “to have”. Présent: **j’ai, tu as, il a, nous avons, vous avez, ils ont**. It is also the helper that builds the past of nearly every French verb — and it appears where English uses “to be”: *j’ai faim* is “I am hungry”, *j’ai 30 ans* is “I am 30”.

Canonical page: https://cocoonfrench.com/guides/avoir-conjugation
Published by Cocoon French (https://cocoonfrench.com/) — French for total beginners through
slow, visual stories. A free Club account includes full lessons and a scored speaking drill:
https://club.cocoonfrench.com/login
Updated: 2026-09-07

## Présent — the six to memorise

There is no pattern to find here. Avoir is irregular in the way only the most-used verbs in a language get to be, and the six forms simply have to be learnt. The good news is that you will hear them several hundred times a day.

| French | English |
|---|---|
| j’ai | I have |
| tu as | you have |
| il / elle a | he / she has |
| nous avons | we have |
| vous avez | you have |
| ils / elles ont | they have |

**Ils ont or ils sont?** — These two are one letter apart in writing and clearly different out loud: ils ont (they have) links as “eel-ZOHN”, while ils sont (they are) is “eel SOHN”. If you can hear the buzzing z, it is avoir.

## Where French says have and English says be

This is the section worth reading twice. A long list of everyday states that English treats as adjectives — I am hungry, I am cold, I am right — French treats as things you possess. Say je suis faim and you have said “I am hunger”.

| French | Literally | Means |
|---|---|---|
| j’ai faim | I have hunger | I’m hungry |
| j’ai soif | I have thirst | I’m thirsty |
| j’ai froid | I have cold | I’m cold |
| j’ai chaud | I have heat | I’m hot |
| j’ai peur | I have fear | I’m scared |
| j’ai sommeil | I have sleep | I’m sleepy |
| j’ai raison | I have reason | I’m right |
| j’ai tort | I have wrong | I’m wrong |
| j’ai de la chance | I have luck | I’m lucky |
| j’ai mal à la tête | I have bad to the head | I have a headache |
| j’ai besoin de… | I have need of | I need… |
| j’ai envie de… | I have desire of | I feel like… |

**The age one catches everybody** — French does not say how old you are. It says how many years you have: j’ai trente ans — “I have thirty years” — is “I’m thirty”. And you cannot drop the ans the way English drops “years old”. J’ai trente means nothing at all.

One more that earns its keep: il y a, built on the il form, means “there is” and “there are” — both, with no change. Il y a un chat, il y a deux chats. It also does “ago”: il y a trois ans, three years ago.

## Passé composé — what avoir builds

Before its own past tense, the more important fact: avoir is the helper for the passé composé of almost every French verb. Take the présent of avoir, add a past participle, and you have the past: j’ai mangé, tu as vu, nous avons fini. Learn this table and you have unlocked the past tense of hundreds of verbs, not one.

Its own past participle is eu — spelled with three letters and pronounced as one sound, roughly “ew”. So “I had” in the completed sense is j’ai eu.

| French | English |
|---|---|
| j’ai eu | I had / have had |
| tu as eu | you had / have had |
| il / elle a eu | he / she had / have had |
| nous avons eu | we had / have had |
| vous avez eu | you had / have had |
| ils / elles ont eu | they had / have had |

## Imparfait — the one you will actually use

For talking about the past, avais is far more common than j’ai eu. The imparfait describes how things were — a state that lasted — and having something is almost always a state.

| French | English |
|---|---|
| j’avais | I had / used to have |
| tu avais | you had / used to have |
| il / elle avait | he / she had / used to have |
| nous avions | we had / used to have |
| vous aviez | you had / used to have |
| ils / elles avaient | they had / used to have |

**Built the regular way** — Unlike its présent, the imparfait of avoir follows the normal rule exactly: take the nous form of the présent (avons), drop the -ons, add the endings. Only être refuses that rule.

## Futur and conditionnel — one stem, two tenses

The futur stem is aur-, which looks nothing like the infinitive and simply has to be learnt. The reward is that the same stem gives you the conditionnel — the two tenses differ only in the endings hung off it.

| French | English |
|---|---|
| j’aurai | I will have |
| tu auras | you will have |
| il / elle aura | he / she will have |
| nous aurons | we will have |
| vous aurez | you will have |
| ils / elles auront | they will have |

**⚠ j’aurai and j’aurais are one letter apart** — J’aurai (no s) is “I will have”. J’aurais (with s) is “I would have”. They sound nearly identical in speech and French speakers get them wrong in writing too — it is one of the most common spelling mistakes in the language.

## Conditionnel — would have

Same aur- stem, the imparfait endings. This is the tense of politeness and hypotheticals: j’aurais besoin d’aide — “I would need some help” — is softer and more courteous than saying you need it outright.

| French | English |
|---|---|
| j’aurais | I would have |
| tu aurais | you would have |
| il / elle aurait | he / she would have |
| nous aurions | we would have |
| vous auriez | you would have |
| ils / elles auraient | they would have |

## Subjonctif — after il faut que

The subjunctive turns up after expressions of necessity, doubt and emotion, and avoir has one of the two irregular sets you genuinely need: il faut que j’aie — “I need to have”.

| French | English |
|---|---|
| j’aie | (that) I have |
| tu aies | (that) you have |
| il / elle ait | (that) he / she have |
| nous ayons | (that) we have |
| vous ayez | (that) you have |
| ils / elles aient | (that) they have |

The forms are worth a second look because they are so short. Aie, aies and ait are all pronounced the same — a single “eh” — so in speech the whole singular collapses into one sound.

## Impératif and plus-que-parfait

The imperative of avoir is borrowed straight from the subjunctive and is genuinely rare — it survives mostly in set phrases like n’ayez pas peur, “don’t be afraid”.

| French | English |
|---|---|
| aie ! | have! (to one person you know) |
| ayons ! | let’s have! |
| ayez ! | have! (formal, or to a group) |

## Plus-que-parfait — the past behind the past

Take the imparfait of avoir and add the participle, and you get the step further back: j’avais eu, “I had had”. It is the tense for something that was already finished before the moment you are describing.

| French | English |
|---|---|
| j’avais eu | I had had |
| tu avais eu | you had had |
| il / elle avait eu | he / she had had |
| nous avions eu | we had had |
| vous aviez eu | you had had |
| ils / elles avaient eu | they had had |

## FAQ

### How do you conjugate avoir in the present tense?

J’ai, tu as, il / elle a, nous avons, vous avez, ils / elles ont. It is irregular and has to be memorised — no pattern will get you there.

### What does avoir mean?

“To have.” It also works as the helper verb that builds the passé composé of most French verbs, and it appears in expressions where English uses “to be”.

### Why is it j’ai faim and not je suis faim?

Because French treats hunger as something you possess rather than something you are. J’ai faim is literally “I have hunger”. The same goes for thirst, cold, heat, fear, sleepiness and being right or wrong.

### How do you say your age in French?

With avoir, not être: j’ai trente ans, literally “I have thirty years”. The word ans cannot be dropped.

### What is the past participle of avoir?

Eu. It is spelled with two vowels and pronounced as a single sound, roughly “ew”, so j’ai eu is two syllables.

### What is the difference between j’aurai and j’aurais?

J’aurai is the futur — “I will have”. J’aurais is the conditionnel — “I would have”. They sound almost identical, and the silent s is the only thing separating them in writing.

### When do you use avoir instead of être in the past?

Avoir is the helper for almost every verb. Être takes over for a short list of movement verbs — aller, venir, partir, arriver, entrer, sortir, monter, descendre, rester, tomber, naître, mourir — and for all reflexive verbs.

## Related guides

- Être conjugation: https://cocoonfrench.com/guides/etre-conjugation
- French verb conjugation: https://cocoonfrench.com/guides/french-verb-conjugation
- Imparfait vs passé composé: https://cocoonfrench.com/guides/imparfait-vs-passe-compose
- All free French guides: https://cocoonfrench.com/guides