What’s the difference between avoir and être?

Avoir or être: which verb should you choose?

The verbs avoirto have and êtreto be are two of the most important verbs in the French language: they can be used alone as main verbs or they can be used as auxiliary verbs to form the French compound tenses.

Read on to see the conjugation of these two verbs, then master the difference between avoir and être as auxiliary verbs. At the end, you can put your knowledge to the test in the free exercises.

Contents

How to conjugate avoir and être

avoir

présent imparfait passé simple futur simple
j’ ai avais eus aurai
tu as avais eus auras
il a avait eut aura
nous avons avions eûmes aurons
vous avez aviez eûtes aurez
ils ont avaient eurent auront
Participe présent Participe passé
ayant eu

être

présent imparfait passé simple futur simple
je/j’ suis étais fus serai
tu es étais fus seras
il est était fut sera
nous sommes étions fûmes serons
vous êtes étiez fûtes serez
ils sont étaient furent seront
Participe présent Participe passé
étant été

When to use avoir and être as main verbs

avoir

We use avoir as a main verb in the following cases:

  • to express ownership or possession
    Example:
    Il a une voiture.He has a car.
  • to describe a condition or state that refers to a noun
    Example:
    J’ai le temps. Tu as une soeur. Elle a les yeux bleus.I have the time. You have a sister. She has blue eyes.
  • to talk about age
    Example:
    J’ai 23 ans.I am 23 years old.

être

We use être as a main verb in the following cases:

  • with adjectives
    Example:
    Tu es sympa.You are nice.
  • to identify things/people (description, nationality, professions, …)
    Example:
    C’est Laura. Elle est française. Elle est professeur.This is Laura. She is French. She is a teacher.
  • for dates and times
    Example:
    Aujourd’hui, on est le 20 août. Il est 9 heures.Today is August 20th. It is 9 o’clock.

When to use avoir and être as auxiliary verbs

Avoir and être are used as auxiliary verbs to conjugate the compound tenses: passé composé, passé antérieur, plus-que-parfait and futur antérieur. Having trouble deciding which verb to use as your auxiliary? Read on to learn the difference between avoir and être.

avoir

  • to form the compound tenses of most verbs
    Example:
    Il a mis la table.He set the table.
  • this also includes the compound tenses of the verbs avoir and être
    Example:
    Elle a eu un vélo.She got a bicycle.
    Elle a été malade.She was sick.

être

  • for all reflexive verbs
    Example:
    Je me suis trompé.I was mistaken.
  • in passive sentences
    Example:
    Le vélo est réparé par Xavier.The bicycle is being repaired by Xavier.
  • for the following 16 verbs of movement:
    naître/mourirto be born/to die, aller/venirto go/to come, monter/descendreto go up/to go down, arriver/partirto arrive/to leave, entrer/sortirto enter/to go out, apparaîtreto appear, devenirto become, passerto pass, resterto stay, retournerto return, tomberto fall
    Example:
    Luc est né un mardi.Luc was born on a Tuesday.
  • and their derivatives:
    → revenirto come back, rentrerto return (home), remonterto go back up, redescendreto go back down, repartirto leave again, …
    Example:
    Nous sommes repartis le lendemain.We left the next day.

avoir and être 

Some verbs can be used with avoir as well as être. We use être with the verbs of movement and change of state listed above (the list of 16 verbs), but these same verbs must be conjugated with avoir when they are transitive, that is, when they take a direct object. In these cases, the auxiliary chosen gives the sentence a different meaning. Here are a few examples:

verbe with être with avoir
descendreto go down Pierre est descendu rapidement.Pierre went down quickly.
→ être, verb of movement		 Pierre a descendu les escaliers.Pierre went down the stairs.
→ avoir, transitive = action on les escaliers
(re)monterto go (back) up Marine était montée dans sa chambre.Marine had gone up to her room.
→ être, verb of movement		 Marine avait monté les valises.Marine had taken the suitcases up.
→ avoir, transitive = action on les valises
sortirto go out Nous sommes sortis à 20 h.We went out at 8 p.m.
→ être, verb of movement		 Nous avons sorti les poubelles.We took out the bins.
→ avoir, transitive = action on les poubelles
(r)entrerto enter/to come back Je suis rentrée tard.I came home late.
→ être, verb of movement		 J‘ai rentré les chaises.I brought the chairs inside.
→ avoir, transitive = action on les chaises
passerto pass Tu étais passé par ici.You had passed by here.
→ être, verb of movement		 Tu avais passé une semaine en Espagne.You had spent a week in Spain.
→ avoir, transitive = action on une semaine

The 16 verbs that use the auxiliary être

Most verbs use the auxiliary avoir to form compound tenses. However, 16 verbs of movement and change of state (as well as their compound forms) are conjugated with être.

To memorize these 16 verbs, there are two methods:

  1. the acronym: Dr. & Mrs. Vandertrampp
    → D : descendreto go down ; r : resterto stay ; M : mourirto die ; r : retournerto go back/to return ; s : sortirto go out ; V : venirto come ; a : allerto go ; n : naîtreto be born ; d : devenirto become ; e : entrerto enter ; (r : revenirto come back) ; t : tomberto fall ; (r : rentrerto enter (again)) ; a : arriverto arrive ; a : apparaîtreto appear ; m : monterto go up ; p : partirto leave ; p : passerto pass
  2. The “house of être”