avoir

French

Alternative forms

• havoir (obsolete, rare)

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French avoir, from Old French avoir, aveir, aver, from Latin habēre (“have, hold, possess”), probably from a Proto-Italic *habēō or *haβēō, possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʰh₁bʰ- (“to grab, to take”). Influenced and reinforced by similar (yet etymologically unrelated) verbs in Germanic; compare Frankish *habbjan (“to have”), Old High German habēn (“to have”), Old Norse hafa (“to have”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌱𐌰𐌽 (haban, “to have”).

See closer cognates in regional languages in France: Angevin avouèr, Bourbonnais-Berrichon avoér, Bourguignon aivoi, Champenois aouâr, Corsican avè, Franco-Provençal avêr, Franc-Comtois aivoi, Gallo avair, Lorrain ahoir, Norman avaer, Occitan aver, Picard avoèr.

Further cognates include: Italian avere, Portuguese haver, Romanian avea, avere, and Sardinian (Campidanese airi, Logudorese àere), Sicilian aviri, Spanish haber, and English aver (borrowed via Old French).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.vwaʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -waʁ

Noun

avoir m (plural avoirs)

1. asset, possession

Verb

avoir

1. (transitive) to have (to own; to possess)

   Near-synonym: posséder

   J’aimerais avoir 20 dollars. ― I would like to have 20 dollars.

2. (auxiliary) to have (auxiliary verb to form compound past tenses of most verbs)

   Coordinate term: être

   J’ai parlé. ― I have spoken, I spoke.

   Qu’est-ce que vous m’avez fait ? ― What have you done to me?

3. (transitive) to have (a condition)

   J’ai faim. ― I'm hungry. (literally, “I have hunger.”)

   J’ai soif. ― I'm thirsty. (literally, “I have thirst.”)

   J’ai froid. ― I'm cold. (literally, “I have cold.”)

   J’ai chaud. ― I'm hot, I feel hot. (literally, “I have hot.”)

   J’ai la chiasse. ― I have the shits.

   J’ai le rhume. ― I have a cold.

   J’ai le SIDA. ― I have AIDS.

   J’ai de la fièvre. ― I've got a fever.

4. (transitive) to have (a measure or age)

   Elle a 19 ans. ― She is 19 years old. (literally, “She has 19 years.”)

5. (transitive) to have (to trick)

   Tu t’es fait avoir. ― You've been had.

6. (transitive) to have (to participate in an experience)

   avoir des relations sexuelles ― to have sexual relations

7. (auxiliary) to have (to), must [with à (+ infinitive)]

   J’ai à vous parler. ― I have to talk to you.

Usage notes

Avoir is often used with nouns like chaud (“heat”), faim (“hunger”), soif (“thirst”), peur (“fear”), etc. to express a personal condition or feeling, as shown in examples above. While constructions like être affamé (“to be starving/starved”) and être assoiffé (“to be thirsty”) exist, they are almost always used figuratively. It is always more natural to use avoir rather than être in the examples listed above, and other similar cases. In some cases, both verbs can be used, but with vastly different meanings:

J’ai chaud. ― I'm hot. (I feel hot) (literally, “I have heat.”)

Je suis chaud. ― I'm down for it. / I'm horny. / I'm on fire. (figuratively)

Conjugation

Conjugation of avoir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	avoir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	ayant /ɛ.jɑ̃/ or /e.jɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		eu /y/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	ai /e/	as /a/	a /a/	avons /a.vɔ̃/	avez /a.ve/	ont /ɔ̃/
	imperfect	avais /a.vɛ/	avais /a.vɛ/	avait /a.vɛ/	avions /a.vjɔ̃/	aviez /a.vje/	avaient /a.vɛ/
	past historic2	eus /y/	eus /y/	eut /y/	eûmes /ym/	eûtes /yt/	eurent /yʁ/
	future	aurai /ɔ.ʁe/ or /o.ʁe/	auras /ɔ.ʁa/ or /o.ʁa/	aura /ɔ.ʁa/ or /o.ʁa/	aurons /ɔ.ʁɔ̃/ or /o.ʁɔ̃/	aurez /ɔ.ʁe/ or /o.ʁe/	auront /ɔ.ʁɔ̃/ or /o.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	aurais /ɔ.ʁɛ/ or /o.ʁɛ/	aurais /ɔ.ʁɛ/ or /o.ʁɛ/	aurait /ɔ.ʁɛ/ or /o.ʁɛ/	aurions /ɔ.ʁjɔ̃/ or /o.ʁjɔ̃/	auriez /ɔ.ʁje/ or /o.ʁje/	auraient /ɔ.ʁɛ/ or /o.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	aie /ɛ/	aies /ɛ/	ait /ɛ/	ayons /ɛ.jɔ̃/ or /e.jɔ̃/	ayez /ɛ.je/ or /e.je/	aient /ɛ/
	imperfect2	eusse /ys/	eusses /ys/	eût /y/	eussions /y.sjɔ̃/	eussiez /y.sje/	eussent /ys/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	aie /ɛ/	—	ayons /ɛ.jɔ̃/ or /e.jɔ̃/	ayez /ɛ.je/ or /e.je/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

French terms starting with “avoir”

• en avoir plus qu’assez
• il y a
• l’avoir mauvaise
• n’avoir que faire
• n’y a-t-il
• un tiens vaut mieux que deux tu l’auras
• y a-t-il
• y avoir

See also

• être

Further reading

• “avoir”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Middle French

Alternative forms

• avoyr

Etymology

From Old French avoir, aveir, from Latin habēre, present active infinitive of habeō (“have, hold, possess”), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʰh₁bʰ- (“to grab, to take”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aˈvwɛr/

Verb

avoir

1. to have
2. (auxiliary) to have (verb used to form the perfect tense)

Conjugation

• Like Modern French avoir, highly irregular
• Middle French conjugation varies from one text to another. Hence, the following conjugation should be considered as typical, not as exhaustive.

Conjugation of avoir

infinitive	simple	avoir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle1 or gerund2	simple	ayant
	compound	present participle or gerund of avoir + past participle
past participle		eu
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		ie (i’)	tu	il, elle	nous	vous	ilz, elles
(simple tenses)	present	ai, ay	as	a	avons	avez	ont
	imperfect	avais	avais	avait	avions	aviez	avoient, avoyent
	past historic	eus	eus	eut	eusmes	eustes	eurent
	future	auroie, auroye	auras	aura	aurons	aurez	auront
	conditional	aurois	aurois	aurait	aurions	auriez	auroient, auroyent
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que ie (i’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ilz, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	aie	aies	ait	ayons	ayez	aient, ayent
	imperfect	eusse	eusses	eust	eussions	eussiez	eussent
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	aie	—	ayons, aions	ayez, aiez	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The present participle was variable in gender and number until the 17th century (Anne Sancier-Château [1995], Une esthétique nouvelle: Honoré d'Urfé, correcteur de l'Astrée, p. 179). The French Academy would eventually declare it not to be declined in 1679.
2 The gerund was held to be invariable by grammarians of the early 17th century, and was usable with preposition en, as in Modern French, although the preposition was not mandatory (Anne Sancier-Château [1995], op. cit., p. 180).

Descendants

• French: avoir

References

• avoir on Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330–1500) (in French)

Old French

Alternative forms

• aveir, aver (archaic or northern)
• avoyr (alternative spelling)

Etymology

From Latin habēre. Cognate with Old Occitan aver, haver, Old Spanish aver.

Pronunciation

• (archaic) IPA^(key): /aˈvei̯ɾ/
• (classical) IPA^(key): /aˈvoi̯ɾ/
• (late) IPA^(key): /aˈvo̯ɛɾ/

Verb

avoir

1. to have
2. (auxiliary) to have (verb used to form the perfect tense)
3. to exist (there is/there are)
   • c. 1200, Author unknown, Les quatres sohais Saint Martin:

     Un vilain ot en Normendie

     There was a peasant in Normandy

Conjugation

This verb conjugates as a third-group verb. This verb has irregularities in its conjugation. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.

    Conjugation of avoir (see also Appendix:Old French verbs)

		simple			compound
infinitive		avoir			avoir eü, eüṭ, oü, oüṭ
gerund		en aiant			gerund of avoir + past participle
present participle		aiant
past participle		eü, eüṭ, oü, oüṭ
person		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		jo	tu	il	nos	vos	il
simple tenses	present	ai	as	a, aṭ	avons	avez	ont
	imperfect	avoie, aveie	avoies, aveies	avoit, aveit	aviiens, aviens	aviiez, aviez	avoient, aveient
	preterite	oi	eüs, oüs	ot, out	eümes, oümes	eüstes, oüstes	orent
	future	avrai, arai	avras, aras	avra, ara	avrons, arons	avroiz, avreiz, avrez, aroiz, areiz, arez	avront, aront
	conditional	avroie, avreie, aroie, areie	avroies, avreies, aroies, areies	avroit, avreit, aroit, areit	avriiens, avriens, ariiens, ariens	avriiez, avriez, ariiez, ariez	avroient, avreient, aroient, areient
compound tenses	present perfect	present tense of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect tense of avoir + past participle
	past anterior	preterite tense of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future tense of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional tense of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que jo	que tu	qu’il	que nos	que vos	qu’il
simple tenses	present	aie	aies	aie, aieṭ, ait	aiiens, aions	aiiez	aient
	imperfect	eüsse, oüsse	eüsses, oüsses	eüst, oüst	eüssons, eüssiens, oüssons, oüssiens	eüssoiz, eüssez, eüssiez, oüssoiz, oüssez, oüssiez	eüssent, oüssent
compound tenses	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nos	vos	–
		—	aies	—	aiiens, aions	aiiez	—

Noun

avoir oblique singular, m (oblique plural avoirs, nominative singular avoirs, nominative plural avoir)

1. possession; good
   • c. 1170, Chrétien de Troyes, Érec et Énide:

     C'est mes avoirs, c'est mes tresorz.

     It is my possession, it is my treasure.

   • c. 1250, Rutebeuf, Ci encoumence la vie de Sainte Marie l'Egypcienne:

     Robes, deniers ne autre avoir
     Ne voloit de l'autrui avoir.

     Not clothing, nor money, nor other possessions
     Did she want to have from others.

Descendants

Several via the form aveir.

• Bourguignon: aivoi
• Gallo: aveir
• Middle French: avoir
  • French: avoir
• Norman: aveir, aver
• Picard: avoèr
• Walloon: aveur
• → Middle English: aver
  • English: aver