Use avoir for age and possession

By UK GCSE French · independent study · myAudience

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Use avoir for age and possession

Avoir means to have. Its present forms are irregular: j’ai, tu as, il a, elle a, nous avons, vous avez, ils ont, elles ont. Learn these with their subjects. The apostrophe in j’ai joins the shortened je to a vowel-initial verb. Neither the noun after the verb nor the speaker’s gender changes these present forms.

Age is expressed with avoir rather than être. « J’ai seize ans » means I am sixteen years old. Do not translate English am mechanically as suis. Ans is plural because the quantity is more than one. This fictional example is language practice, not a request to disclose your age or personal information.

Avoir also describes possession: « Nous avons deux livres » means we have two books. A number usually replaces an indefinite article here; do not add des after deux. Compare « Nous avons des livres », which introduces some books without stating how many.

Vocabulary in use: seize means sixteen, un an is a year and deux means two. The invented sentence « Mon ami a seize ans et il a deux livres » uses the same verb in two different functions. In English, one function becomes is and the other becomes has. Meaning guides translation more reliably than matching words one by one.

Worked example: Translate “My friend is sixteen” using ami.

Use mon ami for my male friend.

Select third-person singular a.

Use seize ans for the stated age.

Answer: Mon ami a seize ans.

Check your understanding: Complete « Vous ___ deux livres » with avoir.

Answer: Vous avez deux livres.

Why: Avez agrees with vous, whether vous addresses one person politely or several people.