Grammaire 2: expressions idiomatiques avec avoir

Just like with faire, there are many different idiomatic expressions with the verb avoir. We already used one to talk about age:

J’ai 14 ans.    (I am fourteen years old.)

Il a 40 ans.    (He is 40 years old.)

Notice how avoir translates to “to be” in English. In French you “have” 14 years (of experience!) In English you “are” 14 years old. This is another example of how we cannot simply rely on word by word translations without taking the entire context into account.

We have learned how to use the verb être with adjectives to describe people and things (e.g., Jean est heureux, Maya est intéressante). In French, there are some expressions with avoir to describe a person’s state of being. Let’s look at some common avoir expressions in French.

(a) Expressions avec avoir

Il fait 5°C aujourd’hui. J’ai froid.

   (It’s 41°F today. I’m cold.)

En été, j’ai chaud.

   (In summer, I am hot.)

Il a gagné la loterie. Il a de la chance ! 

   (He won the lottery. He’s lucky!)

Pascale pense qu’il a raison, mais il a tort.

   (Pascale thinks he’s right, but he’s wrong.)

 

You can also apply adverbs of intensity to all of the expressions listed in the left column above. For example:

J’ai très chaud.

   (I’m really hot.)

Il a vraiment honte.

   (He is really ashamed.)

(b) Expressions avec avoir + de + nom,  verbe.

This next set of avoir expressions are followed by a de and then a noun or a verb. For example, we can take you need (tu as besoin) and expand it to say you need a pen (tu as besoin d’un stylo) or you need to study (tu as besoin d’étudier).