When to use avoir and etre? The difference between avoir and etre

Hi, I cannot seem to understand when to use avoir or etre and why. With the description "fatigue", etre was used "Je suis fatigue", but with "peur" (and many others), avoir was used "J'ai peur". Thanks in advance !

Salut! Good question! The difference between the avoir and etre can be confusing.

"Etre" is used with verbs describing a state.

A good way to remember them is to use the DR MRS VANDERTRAMP: Devenir Revenir Monter Rester Sortir Venir Aller Naitre Descendre Entrer Retourner Tomber Rentrer Arriver Mourir Partir. This list is not a full list of verbs using "etre" but they're the most common ones.

"Avoir" is used mainly with action verbs. Best of luck with your French learning! :D

Merci beaucoup !!

I can see that we use verb (avoir) with some words like hungry and tirsty. J'ai faim. J'ai soif Are there another words which used with avoir to learn?? Thanks a lot for your efforts

Salut ! Show me some standard Francais vocabularies; grammars; home works and teach me the way to talk. Thank you so much

Thanks a lot . You are very helpful. Have a nice day

Thank you for the help and all the best for you.

Bonjour à tous! I have decided to provide a few examples of expressions that use 'avoir' avoir chaud to be hot avoir froid to be cold avoir faim to be hungry avoir soif to be thirsty avoir sommeil to be sleepy avoir mal à to have an ache avoir l’air to seem avoir ____ ans to be __years old avoir peur de to be afraid of avoir honte de to be ashamed of avoir raison to be right avoir tort to be wrong J'éspère que cela vous aide! - I hope this helps! - Marie-Claire

Marie-Claire, Your comments are very helpful, thank you. I asked a question in another thread but will repeat it here so as to get your opinion. The question is about grammar. Are verb tenses and other basic grammar rules explained anywhere in the rocket program? I bought all three levels and don't see the information relayed. In the games it assumes you already know how to conjugate. I see another commenter recommending that people buy a grammar book but I thought in buying this program that I was buying something that would give me all the information I would need to learn french. If that is incorrect what other fundamentals should I supplement the program with? thanks!

Thank you very much

Hi Brad, Sorry for the late reply. Your Language & Culture lessons cover French grammar however if you feel you need more comprehensive grammar lessons, you might find a standard grammar book useful as you work through the course. In case you aren't aware, you can also use the search bar at the top of the page to search for particular grammar topics (e.g. "present continuous") - it's quite helpful when you aren't sure where to look for a certain topic. I hope that helps! - The Rocket Languages Team

i don't undrestand participles pass will you help me please.

Bonjour Wosen! Here is a quick page that seems to explain the concept of the passé composé in French and how to use past participles. http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/French/Grammar/Tenses/Present_perfect I hope you find it useful! - J'espère que vous le trouverez utile! À bientôt, - Marie-Claire

CAn you help on futur proche ? How to use them in sentences. Thanks.

Bonjour Mrunal, To use the futur proche, simply conjugate the verb 'aller' + the infinitive. For example: - Je vais aller en France la semaine prochaine. If you need any more help with this, please don't hesitate to ask. - Marie-Claire

I am just beginning the French course. One thing is confusing me about  matching gender in etre but not avoir. Here is a snippet from the lesson:   "...we are going to learn how to describe things using avoir 'to have'. Since we won't be using adjectives, we don't actually have to worry about these agreements in number and gender." ....Well,  aren't words like fear and hunger descriptor words, i.e. adjectives?  J'ai faim is the same for fem and masc. Why not J'ai faime for females. Am I understanding this correctly?

Thank you.

Salut NicoleF17 !

Thanks for your question! The fact that some sentences are said a bit differently in French than they are in English is what makes this a bit tricky. If we look at the literal meaning of the French, though, this might help. Let's take the sentence "I am hungry" as an example.

In English, we use the verb "to be" and an adjective, "hungry," to create this sentence. "Hungry" is an adjective because it is used to describe nouns or pronouns (in this case, it is describing "I").

In French, however, we say J'ai faim to express the same idea. Literally, this sentence means "I have hunger." The word "hunger" (faim) is actually a noun and not an adjective - it falls into the category of "person, place or thing," and it generally isn't used to describe someone (for instance, you wouldn't say "I am hunger"). Since it's not describing anyone/anything, it doesn't have to change to agree with anything. 

I hope that this is helpful! Do let me know if you have any other questions.

Bon courage !

Liss