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

* Par example: I can't wait to see you » j'ai hate de te voir

* Faites attention: 'Tu as raison' means 'You're right'

Are you familiar with avoir and être as helper / auxiliary verbs?

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)

* Par example: I need a holiday » j'ai besoin des vacances

Do you want to learn a little more about avoir?

Can you conjugate être?



©2010 Flyover French | Home | About Us | Site Map | Contact Us | Back to Top ⇑ | Design by: Savv.ie

Follow Flyover French on Twitter! Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional Valid CSS! Spreadfirefox Affiliate Button