French 3: Être, Avoir, Aller, Faire, plus Gender & Articles

The four most common verbs in French are irregular: être (to be), avoir (to have), aller (to go) and faire (to do, to make). You will hear them in almost every sentence, and they also build other tenses, so they repay being learned first and learned cold. The good news is that the rest of the irregular verbs fall into a few families, and most of their forms still end the way regular ones do.

This piece has two halves. The first sorts the irregular verbs and gives you a trainer for them. The second deals with the other thing every French noun carries: its gender, and the small words in front of it, le, une, du, de, that English speakers find harder than any verb. Take it in two sittings if you like.

The big four: être, avoir, aller, faire

	être	avoir	aller	faire
je, j’	suis	ai	vais	fais
tu	es	as	vas	fais
il, elle, on	est	a	va	fait
nous	sommes	avons	allons	faisons
vous	êtes	avez	allez	faites
ils, elles	sont	ont	vont	font

Say the columns aloud until they come as a chant. Then learn what each verb does beyond its English meaning, because that is where the mistakes are.

• Avoir covers age and body states where English uses “be”: J’ai trente ans (I’m thirty), j’ai faim, j’ai soif, j’ai froid, j’ai chaud, j’ai peur. Il y a means “there is” and “there are”.
• Être is identity, description and place: Je suis infirmière (no article before a job), Elle est à Montréal. C’est (“it is, this is”) is the most useful phrase in the language.
• Aller is also health and the near future: Ça va ? (how are things?), Je vais appeler ma mère (I’m going to call my mother).
• Faire covers the weather and many activities: Il fait beau, il fait froid; faire du sport, faire les courses (do the shopping), faire la cuisine. In faisons the ai sounds like the short e of le.

The modal verbs: can, want, must, know

	pouvoir	vouloir	devoir	savoir
je	peux	veux	dois	sais
tu	peux	veux	dois	sais
il, elle, on	peut	veut	doit	sait
nous	pouvons	voulons	devons	savons
vous	pouvez	voulez	devez	savez
ils, elles	peuvent	veulent	doivent	savent

These four take a plain infinitive after them, and with it they let you say a great deal with few verbs: Je peux payer par carte ?, Je dois partir, Tu sais nager ? Notice the shape they share: the stem changes in the singular and in ils, and the plain stem returns in nous and vous. Two notes. When you ask for something, je veux sounds blunt; say je voudrais (I would like). And savoir is knowing a fact or how to do something, while connaître is knowing a person or a place: Je sais où il habite, but Je connais Marie.

The other irregulars come in families

Family	je	nous	ils	Also
partir: drop a consonant in the singular	pars	partons	partent	sortir, dormir, sentir, servir
venir: ie when the stem is stressed	viens	venons	viennent	devenir, revenir, tenir
prendre: no d in the plural	prends	prenons	prennent	apprendre, comprendre
ouvrir: -er endings on an -ir verb	ouvre	ouvrons	ouvrent	offrir, découvrir

A handful are best learned one by one, and the trainer has them all: mettre (mets, mettons), dire (dis, disons, but vous dites), voir (vois, voyons, voient), boire (bois, buvons, boivent), lire (lis, lisons), écrire (écris, écrivons), connaître (connais, connaissons) and croire (crois, croyons). Notice what does not change: almost every singular ends in -s, -s, -t, and almost every plural in -ons, -ez, -ent. Only vous êtes, vous faites and vous dites break the -ez.

Spelling changes that protect a sound

Some -er verbs are regular in sound but adjust their spelling. In manger the g would turn hard before o, so it keeps an e: nous mangeons. In commencer the c takes a cedilla: nous commençons. In a second group, the vowel before the ending opens when the ending is silent: acheter gives j’achète but nous achetons; préférer gives je préfère; appeler doubles its l instead (je m’appelle). Verbs in -oyer and -uyer change y to i before a silent e (nettoyer, je nettoie); with -ayer both spellings are correct: je paie or je paye. In every case the nous and vous forms keep the plain stem, as in the modal verbs.

Train the irregular forms

The same trainer as in the previous piece, now with the irregular groups. Switch groups on and off with the first row of buttons. Start with the big four, drill them until they feel easy, then add the next group. The note after each answer explains the pattern behind the form.

Every noun has a gender

Every French noun is masculine or feminine, including things and ideas: le livre (the book) is masculine, la table feminine. The gender decides the article, the adjectives (un petit livre, une petite table) and the pronoun (il or elle). Some endings give a strong hint:

Usually feminine	Usually masculine
-tion, -sion: la nation	-ment: le moment
-té: la liberté (but l’été, m)	-age: le fromage (but la page, la plage, l’image)
-ette: la baguette	-eau: le bateau (but l’eau, la peau)
-ance, -ence: la chance (but le silence)	-isme: le tourisme

The habit that matters more than any rule: learn each noun with le, la, un or une, never alone. When the article is l’, which hides the gender, learn un or une with it: une école, un hôtel. The deck in the next piece shows the gender on every card.

The articles: le, un, du, de

English often uses no article at all (“I like coffee”, “I’d like bread”). French almost always needs one, and which one depends on what you mean.

Meaning	Masculine	Feminine	Before a vowel	Plural
the; things in general	le	la	l’	les
a, one	un	une	un, une	des
some, an amount of	du	de la	de l’	des

• General likes take le, la, les: J’aime le café, Je déteste les araignées. The same after préférer and adorer, even in the negative: Je n’aime pas le poisson.
• An amount takes du, de la, de l’, the partitive: Je bois du café, Je voudrais de l’eau, Il fait du sport.
• After a negative, un, une, des and the partitive become de (or d’): Je n’ai pas de voiture, Il n’y a pas d’eau. Not after être: Ce n’est pas un problème.
• After a quantity, just de: beaucoup de monde, un kilo de pommes, une bouteille d’eau.
• À and de merge with le and les: à + le = au, à + les = aux, de + le = du, de + les = des. Je vais au marché; le café du coin. With la and l’ nothing merges.

Common mistakes

• Être for age and hunger. Je suis trente ans and je suis faim are wrong: j’ai trente ans, j’ai faim.
• Leaving out the article. “I like coffee” is J’aime le café, not J’aime café.
• Keeping du after a negative. Je ne bois pas du café should be Je ne bois pas de café.
• À le, de le. They always merge: au cinéma, du marché.
• Regularising. Vous faites, not vous faisez; ils font, not ils faisent; ils prennent, with nn.

Your next four days

Day	Trainer	Outside the page
1	The big four only	Say your age, your job and where you are, with avoir and être.
2	Add the modal verbs	Five sentences with je peux, je dois, je voudrais.
3	Other irregulars and the partir family	The article sorter once, all the way through.
4	Everything, including spelling changes	Describe your kitchen: what there is, and what there is not.

What sticks

• Learn être, avoir, aller and faire as blocks; they are the most frequent verbs and build other tenses.
• Avoir for age, hunger, thirst and cold; faire for weather; aller for the near future.
• Modal verbs change their stem in the singular and ils, and take an infinitive after them.
• Most irregular verbs still end in -s, -s, -t and -ons, -ez, -ent.
• Every noun is masculine or feminine; learn it with its article.
• Le for the thing or things in general; un for one; du for an amount; de after a negative or a quantity; au, aux, du, des are merged forms.