Être vs avoir in French: the two verbs you need first

Être means “to be” and avoir means “to have”. They are the two most useful verbs in French: you meet them in almost every sentence, and they are also the two helper verbs that build the past tense (the passé composé). The trap for English speakers is that French does not always match English — French uses avoir (to have) for several things English says with “to be”, like your age, hunger, and fear: j’ai faim is literally “I have hunger”, not “I am hunger”.

The present tense, side by side

Both verbs are irregular, so it is worth learning the forms as a block. These are the highest-value conjugations in the language.

Je suis étudiant et j’ai deux frères.
I am a student and I have two brothers.

Être: to be

Use être to say what or how someone or something is — identity, a description with an adjective, a job, or a location.

Elle est française. Elle est à Paris.
She is French. She is in Paris.

This is the verb hiding inside c'est and il est, so getting être right also helps you choose between those two.

Avoir: to have — and to “be” hungry, cold, afraid

Avoir covers possession, just like English “have”. The surprise is a fixed set of expressions where French says avoir but English says “to be”.

Tu as froid ? Moi, j’ai surtout faim.
Are you cold? Me, I’m mostly hungry.

For these, reach for avoir, never être. Saying je suis faim sounds as odd to a French speaker as “I have hunger” does in English.

Both verbs build the past tense

In the passé composé (the everyday past), every verb borrows one of these two as a helper. Most verbs use avoir:

J’ai mangé. Tu as vu le film ?
I ate. Did you see the film?

A smaller group — verbs of coming and going (aller, venir, arriver, partir, entrer, sortir…) and all reflexive verbs — use être, and then the ending agrees with the subject:

Elle est allée au marché. Ils sont partis.
She went to the market. They left.

You do not need the full list at A2; just remember that the helper is usually avoir, with être for movement and reflexive verbs.

Common mistakes

Using être for age, hunger, or fear

These states use avoir in French.

Je suis 25 ans. / Je suis faim. → J’ai 25 ans. / J’ai faim.
I am 25. / I am hungry.

Picking the wrong helper in the past

Movement and reflexive verbs take être, not avoir.

J’ai allé à Paris. → Je suis allé à Paris.
I went to Paris.

Forgetting the accent and the link

Être keeps its circumflex, and vous êtes / ils ont link in speech (vous_êtes, ils_ont), which is why they sound like one word.

vous etes → vous êtes
you are

Because être is the verb behind c’est and il est, the next natural step is choosing c’est or il est when you describe people and things. In Fluera you drill être and avoir inside short spoken sentences — saying your age, where you are, what you have — so the irregular forms and the avoir idioms come out without thinking. Try it when you practice French.

Practice