Page last updated at:
21:12 BST, Tue, 12 May 2009
A common mistake for raring-to-go language learners is that of direct translation. In French, the most common offences generally involve the verbs avoir and être. For example, 'j'ai chaud' means it's a rather a warm day so perhaps we should open this conveniently-chilled bottle of 2005 Smith-Haut-Lafitte; whereas 'je suis chaud' means one's flagrantly 'hot' in the romantic sense. As you'll soon discover, inflection, word order and context can lead to all varieties of interpretations...
Idioms with Avoir, not Être | Idiomes avec Avoir, pas Être
| French | English | |
| avoir chaud | to be hot | |
| avoir froid | to be cold | |
| avoir faim | to be hungry | |
| avoir soif | to be thirsty | |
| avoir honte | to be embarrassed | |
| avoir peur | to be afraid | |
| avoir hâte de | to be in a hurry to | |
| avoir raison | to be right | |
| avoir tort | to be wrong | |
| avoir sommeil | to be sleepy |
More Idioms with Avoir | Plus Idiomes avec Avoir
| French | English | |
| avoir besoin de | to need to | |
| avoir des bonnes nouvelles | to have good news | |
| avoir l'air de | to seem | |
| avoir pitié de | to have pity for | |
| avoir marre de | to have enough of | |
| avoir la dalle / les crocs | to be hungry (to have the flagstone / hooks) | |
| avoir l'estomac dans les talons | to be starving (to have a stomach in the heels) |
Do you want to learn a little more about avoir?
Can you conjugate être?
