---
title: Avoir: to have — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics
description: «Avoir: to have», a lesson of the french course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Avoir means "to have": j'ai (I have), tu as, il a and elle a, on a, nous avons, vous avez, ils ont and elles ont - another verb you learn by heart, a sneeze
---

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# Avoir: to have

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Lesson 29 of the french course of Mova's primary school: 15 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/french/29-avoir-to-have/).

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- [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/29-avoir-to-have/0/) — Avoir means "to have": j'ai (I have), tu as, il a and elle a, on a, nous avons, vous avez, ils ont and elles ont - another verb you learn by heart, a sneeze and a hiccup: "zhay, tu A, ee-LA".
- [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/29-avoir-to-have/1/) — French uses avoir for lots of things English says with "to be": you have hunger (j'ai faim), thirst (j'ai soif), fear (j'ai peur) and years (j'ai dix ans).
- [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/29-avoir-to-have/2/) — Picture a holiday cottage in France at night: a huge spider runs across the floor, you jump on the bed and shout "J'ai peur !" - and your French friend laughs, "Il y a une araignée !", there's a spider!
- [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/29-avoir-to-have/3/) — Il y a means "there is" or "there are", for one thing or for many: il y a un chat, il y a trois chats.
- [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/29-avoir-to-have/4/) — Be careful with two pairs: ils ont (they have, with a buzzing z) and ils sont (they are, with a hissing s); and a with no accent means "has", while à with an accent means "to" or "at".
- [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/29-avoir-to-have/5/) — Avoir (to have): j'ai, tu as, il a, elle a, on a, nous avons, vous avez, ils ont, elles ont; it must be learned by heart.
- [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/29-avoir-to-have/6/) — Ils ont (they have) sounds "eel-ZON"; ils sont (they are) sounds "eel SON".
- [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/29-avoir-to-have/7/) — Je becomes j' before a vowel: j'ai, j'aime, j'habite; never "je ai".
- [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/29-avoir-to-have/8/) — J'ai peur means "I'm scared"; French says "I have fear".
- [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/29-avoir-to-have/9/) — J'ai faim means "I'm hungry" and j'ai soif means "I'm thirsty".
- [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/29-avoir-to-have/10/) — Tu as un animal ? means "Do you have a pet?"; a good answer is "Oui, j'ai un poisson rouge" (a goldfish).
- [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/29-avoir-to-have/11/) — Il y a means "there is" or "there are": il y a un chat sur le lit, il y a trois chats.
- [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/29-avoir-to-have/12/) — Nous verbs usually end in -ons and vous verbs in -ez: nous avons, vous avez.
- [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/29-avoir-to-have/13/) — Hair and eyes are described with avoir: elle a les cheveux longs, il a les yeux verts.
- [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/29-avoir-to-have/15/) — J'ai mal à la tête means "I have a headache"; j'ai mal à + body part says where it hurts.

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