The verb avoir
avoir is the second pillar of French, after être. It means 'to have' — but watch out: French uses avoir in places where English uses 'to be'. You're not 'twenty years old' in French, you 'have twenty years' (j'ai vingt ans). You're not hungry, you 'have hunger' (j'ai faim). Today: the full conjugation, plus the three idioms you'll meet on day one in any French-speaking country.
The full conjugation
j'ai = I have (note the elision — je + ai can never coexist). tu as = you have (silent s). il a / elle a / on a = he/she/one has. nous avons = we have. vous avez = you have (formal/plural). ils ont / elles ont = they have. The chant: ai, as, a, avons, avez, ont. Listen for the liaison in nous avons (noo-za-VOHN), vous avez (voo-za-VAY), ils ont (eel-ZOHN) — the silent s wakes up as a 'z' before the vowel.
Don't confuse a (has) with à (to/at)
il a = he has. il va à Paris = he goes to Paris. The grave accent on à is the only spelling difference, and it carries a lot of weight: a is the verb, à is the preposition. Native writers slip up on this constantly; you'll see corrected drafts where someone wrote il à (wrong) for il a (right). Trust the rule: no accent → verb.
Idiom #1 — avoir … ans (age)
Age in French uses avoir, not être. The pattern: j'ai + number + ans. J'ai vingt ans = I'm twenty (literally 'I have twenty years'). Tu as quel âge? = How old are you? (literally 'You have what age?'). Elle a trente ans = She's thirty. The word ans (years) is required — dropping it sounds like Tarzan French.
Idiom #2 and #3 — avoir faim, avoir soif
avoir faim = to be hungry (literally 'to have hunger'). avoir soif = to be thirsty (literally 'to have thirst'). J'ai faim = I'm hungry. Tu as soif? = Are you thirsty? Note: no article — never j'ai la faim (that would mean something else). The same pattern produces avoir froid (to be cold), avoir chaud (to be hot), avoir peur (to be afraid), avoir sommeil (to be sleepy) — but we'll meet those later.
A few useful numbers for ages
You can't talk about age without numbers. The basics for now: un (1), deux (2), trois (3), dix (10), vingt (20), trente (30). J'ai dix ans = I'm 10. Elle a trente ans = She's 30. There's a liaison in some of these: deux ans = duh-ZAHN, trois ans = trwah-ZAHN. We'll cover the full number system in a later lesson.
