{"id":118289,"date":"2024-01-16T09:18:18","date_gmt":"2024-01-16T14:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/learn\/french-expressions-with-avoir\/"},"modified":"2025-02-13T19:41:12","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T00:41:12","slug":"french-expressions-with-avoir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/french\/french-expressions-with-avoir\/","title":{"rendered":"27 French Expressions with Avoir"},"content":{"rendered":"

Avoir<\/em>, the French verb meaning \u201cto have,\u201d is fundamental to the language and essential for expressing a wide range of everyday ideas, from talking about hunger or fear to using colloquial phrases. French often uses avoir<\/em> with nouns to convey ideas where we might use “to be” with adjectives in English.<\/p>\n

This post looks into 27 key avoir<\/em> expressions, along with examples, to help you sound more natural and confident in your French conversations. You can also watch this video from the FluentU French YouTube channel<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Classic Avoir<\/em> Expressions<\/h2>\n

Let’s get things started with the classics. If you’ve already been learning French for a while, these are probably the avoir<\/em> expressions that introduced you to the idea in the first place. They’re a great way to start understanding the expressions and how they work.<\/p>\n

Let’s start with one of the most common,\u00a0avoir faim<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/em>Literally translated, it means “to have hunger,” but in French, it’s used as an equivalent of “to be hungry.”<\/p>\n

The same is true for a few other basic expressions. Here they are with their literal translations followed by their true translations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
French<\/strong><\/th><\/strong>English<\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Avoir faim <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>to have hunger (to be hungry)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Avoir soif <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>to have thirst (to be thirsty)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Avoir sommeil <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>to have sleepiness (to be sleepy)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Avoir de la chance <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>to have luck (to be lucky)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Avoir chaud <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>to have heat (to be hot)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Avoir froid <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>to have cold (to be cold)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Avoir mal <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>to have pain (to be in pain)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Avoir tort <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>to have wrong (to be wrong)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Avoir raison <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>to have right (to be right)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Avoir du retard <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>to have lateness (to be late)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

With most of these expressions, if you make a mistake<\/a> and use the anglicism \u00eatre\u00a0<\/em>instead of\u00a0avoir,\u00a0<\/em>you just end up making a linguistic error. But in some cases, your mistake could be misconstrued.<\/p>\n

For example, if you were to say Je suis chaud<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>instead of J’ai chaud<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/em>you could mean one of two things. The first is “I’m in heat,” which is used as a slang expression for being sexually excited. But more recently, the slang expression\u00a0Je suis chaud<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>means, “I’m into it” or “I’m game.”<\/p>\n

As for the opposite, saying Je suis froid<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>is implying that you are cold in character or\u00a0personality, not in temperature.<\/p>\n

There’s one other thing to bear in mind with these expressions, and that’s the ways in which\u00a0avoir mal<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>can be modified to express all sorts of different pain. Just saying J’ai mal<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>means that you’re in general pain, but you can also say J’ai mal \u00e0 la t\u00eate<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/em>for example, to say you have a headache, or J’ai mal au ventre<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>to say that your stomach hurts.<\/p>\n

Mastering these expressions will take some time, but once you get used to the idea of using\u00a0avoir<\/em>\u00a0instead of\u00a0\u00eatre<\/em><\/a> to express these ideas, you’ll be ready to move on to some more complex expressions.<\/p>\n

Avoir<\/em> Expressions with Feelings<\/h2>\n

Expressions avec avoir <\/em>(with avoir<\/em>) are very often used to express different feelings<\/a>. Again, instead of using “to be scared” or “to be ashamed,” in French, you’ll be using avoir.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
French<\/strong><\/th>English<\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Avoir peur de <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>to have fear of (to be scared of)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Avoir confiance en <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>to have trust or faith in (to believe in)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Avoir honte <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>to have shame (to be ashamed)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Avoir horreur de <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>to have horror of (to hate)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

Some of these expressions are fairly easy to calque onto your English, for example,\u00a0avoir peur de<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/em>But the three others are used far more commonly in French than their English equivalents. J’ai confiance en toi<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/em>for example, is a common way of building up your friends, kind of like the way we say, “I know you can do it!”<\/p>\n

J’ai honte<\/strong>, <\/em>meanwhile, is commonly used where in English we’d say, “I’m so embarrassed!”<\/p>\n

As for J’ai horreur<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/em>it’s often used instead of Je hais<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>or Je d\u00e9teste<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>to describe something you don’t like. A great way to start sounding like a native\u00a0is to start saying\u00a0J’ai horreur\u00a0<\/em>instead of Je n’aime pas<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>or Je d\u00e9teste<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/em>For example, J’ai horreur des jours pluvieux !<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>would mean “I really hate rainy days!”<\/p>\n

Avoir<\/em> Expressions That’ll Make Your French Flow Better<\/h2>\n

Once you’ve mastered the first two groups of\u00a0avoir\u00a0<\/em>expressions, you might be on the lookout for some other ones to add. These expressions are sure to help your French flow even better and will make you sound even more fluent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
French<\/strong><\/th>English<\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Avoir envie (de) <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>to have want of (to want)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Avoir besoin (de) <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>to have need of (to need)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Avoir ... ans <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>to have ... years (to be ... years old)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Avoir \u00e0 ... <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>to have to ...<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Avoir l'air de <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>to have the air of (to seem)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Avoir l'intention de <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>to have the intention to<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Avoir l'habitude de <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>to have the habit of<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

Most of these expressions calque very easily onto your regular use of English, so they won\u2019t be too hard to add to your vocabulary. The trick is getting into the habit of using them instead of using direct English translations for the concepts you’re trying to express. For example, saying J’ai envie d’un caf\u00e9\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(I want a coffee)\u00a0<\/em>is more common than saying Je veux un caf\u00e9<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/em>and saying Tu sembles \u00eatre<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>is a bit clunkier than saying T’as l’air de<\/em>\u00a0<\/i><\/strong>(You seem).<\/i><\/p>\n

In this group, there are other examples where the French expression is more common than the English equivalent. For example:<\/p>\n

J’ai l’intention de<\/strong> planifier un week-end surprise pour mon ami. <\/em>(I have the intention of planning a surprise weekend for my friend.)<\/p>\n

This English sentence isn’t necessarily something you’d likely find yourself uttering, but the French version is fairly common.<\/p>\n

The same holds true for\u00a0avoir l’habitude de.<\/strong> J’ai l’habitude de me lever t\u00f4t<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/em>(I have the habit of getting up early) uses a common construction; the English equivalent would be closer to “I usually get up early,” but expressing this sentiment with\u00a0avoir l’habitude\u00a0<\/em>is far more common in French.<\/p>\n

Try to integrate these expressions as often as you can!<\/p>\n

Slang Avoir<\/em> Expressions<\/h2>\n

Why is it that, no matter how much we learn in a foreign language, one of the things we always want to learn is slang expressions<\/a>? Probably because they’re so fun to say and use! These expressions in particular don’t always mean what you think they will when you translate them directly\u2014some of them are a little bit odd!<\/p>\n

Here are some great slang expressions to get you using\u00a0avoir\u00a0<\/em>expressions even more often in your daily French conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
French<\/strong><\/th>English<\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Avoir la flemme <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>to have the phlegm (to be lazy)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Avoir la p\u00eache <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>to have the peach (to feel great or in top form)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Avoir la trouille <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>to have the privet (to be scared)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Avoir du chien <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>to have dog (to be charming) (for a woman)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Avoir du pot <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>to have pot (to be lucky)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Avoir le cafard <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>to have the cockroach (to be depressed or out of sorts)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

These expressions aren’t necessarily vulgar, but they’re definitely slang. You’ll want to be careful not to use them in situations like work or with people you don’t know very well, but definitely try using them with your French friends and witness how surprised they are by your linguistic prowess.<\/p>\n

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With this list of\u00a0avoir\u00a0<\/em>expressions, you’re well on your way to mastering them all!<\/p>\n

The more you use them, the easier they\u2019ll become\u2014so get practicing!<\/p>\n

Try using them in your conversations with a language exchange partner<\/a>, or look out for them while watching French titles on streaming platforms like Netflix<\/a> or subtitled French media clips on the video learning program FluentU<\/a>. On there, you’ll encounter tons of avoir<\/em> expressions in clips like in this interview with French footballer Kylian Mbapp\u00e9:<\/p>\n

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FluentU<\/strong> takes authentic videos\u2014like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks\u2014and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.<\/p>\r\n

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You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Check out the website or download the iOS app<\/a> or Android app.<\/a><\/p>\r\n

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