One of the most common verbs in French is the representative of the third, irregular group avoir. The conjugation of this verb must be remembered immediately from the moment of learning the language for two reasons. Firstly, it is found in many everyday designs. With it, they report on their age and the presence of something, and also describe many conditions (cold, hot, hunger or thirst, etc.). The second reason is grammatical: with the help of avoir some complex tenses are formed in which it acts as an auxiliary in the main semantic verb.
The meaning of the verb
The translation into Russian of this verb will correspond to the words “to have, to possess something”, as well as “to get something”.
In addition to many speech turns, the verb is also included in the il ya construction, which can be changed in time according to the basic rules. She has two meanings: the first can be translated as “there is something somewhere”, it is used for descriptions and enumerations. The second meaning is related to time and translates as “ago”. For instance:
- Il ya une table et une chaise dans sa chamber. (“There is a table and a chair in his room.”)
- Janette est venue il ya une heure. (“Janet arrived an hour ago.”)
Indicative
It refers to eight times, of which only four are widely used: Présent, Futur, Passé Composé, Imparfait. Consider the features of each of them.
In the present tense, the initial letter of the stem is preserved, except for the 3-person plural (ils ont).
In the future tense, the conjugation of the verb avoir is based on aur-.
In Imparfait, the verb has two features: the base of the av- and the appearance of complex endings. In this case, the letters –ai– appear in the singular and in the 3rd person of the plural, when subsequent letters are not pronounced. The letter –i- appears in the 2nd and 3rd person of the plural in front of pronounced endings.
In difficult times Passé Composé needs to use different forms of avoir twice. The conjugation of the first coincides with the present tense forms, the second part is the past participle - eu.
Since the verb is auxiliary in the formation of Passé Composé, you should use it in the present tense as a linking verb, and then substitute the participle of the main semantic verb to get the past tense.
Conditional and subjunctive moods for avoir
The conjugation of the verb in these forms can be remembered by the following tips. The conditional mood uses a base similar to the future tense (aur-), and the endings coincide with Imparfait. In the subjunctive mood, two bases will meet: ai- before the unpronounceable endings and ay- before the pronounced.
Imperative mood
Along with other moods, you need to know how to form requests and orders using avoir (conjugation). French has 2 imperative moods, 3 forms each. Presently, there are forms taken from Subjonctif (aie, ayons, ayez). In the past, II participle eu is added to them.