French grammar · Beginner
Arriver in French: To Arrive, To Happen, and To Manage To
Arriver is a regular -er verb with three separate jobs: to arrive (je suis arrivé), to happen (ça arrive, il arrive que), and, with à plus an infinitive, to manage to do something (je n'arrive pas à dormir). It takes être in compound tenses, so its participle agrees with the subject.
Le train arrive à quinze heures.
The train gets in at three o'clock.
What it is
The forms of arriver are completely regular, which means all the learning here is about meaning. The verb starts from the idea of reaching a point, and its other senses grow out of that: an event reaches you (ça arrive), or you finally reach the goal of doing something (j'arrive à le faire).
Je suis arrivée à midi, mais ça arrive d'être en retard. — I got there at noon, but being late does happen.
How to spot it
Check what follows. A place or a time means to arrive. A que clause or nothing at all means to happen. À plus an infinitive means to manage to.
- J'arrive dans cinq minutes. — I'll be there in five minutes.
- Ça arrive à tout le monde. — It happens to everyone.
- Je n'arrive pas à ouvrir ce fichier. — I can't manage to open this file.
- Il arrive qu'elle oublie. — She does sometimes forget.
J'arrive on its own is the standard way to say I'm on my way or coming, even when you haven't left yet.
Arriver Quick Reference
The three meanings and what follows each one
| Structure | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| arriver à + place | to arrive at, to reach | j'arrive à Paris — I'm arriving in Paris |
| arriver de + place | to arrive from | elle arrive de Rome — she's arriving from Rome |
| arriver + time | to get in at | le vol arrive à 18 h — the flight lands at 6 p.m. |
| arriver à + infinitive | to manage to | je n'arrive pas à dormir — I can't get to sleep |
| arriver à quelqu'un | to happen to someone | qu'est-ce qui t'arrive ? — what's the matter? |
| il arrive que + subjunctive | it sometimes happens that | il arrive qu'il pleuve — it does sometimes rain |
| ça arrive | it happens, these things happen | ce n'est rien, ça arrive — never mind, it happens |
Common Arriver Examples in French
Arriver in each of its senses:
Arriving Somewhere
- Nous sommes arrivés très tard.
- We arrived very late.
- Elle est arrivée avant tout le monde.
- She got there before everyone else.
- J'arrive au bureau vers neuf heures.
- I get to the office around nine.
- Le colis est arrivé ce matin.
- The parcel arrived this morning.
The place you arrive at takes à: arriver à Paris, arriver à la gare, arriver au bureau.
Happening
- Ça arrive à tout le monde de se tromper.
- Everyone makes mistakes sometimes.
- Qu'est-ce qui est arrivé hier ?
- What happened yesterday?
- Il lui est arrivé un accident.
- He had an accident.
- Il arrive que le réseau ne marche pas.
- The network does sometimes go down.
Se passer is the neutral synonym: qu'est-ce qui se passe ? and qu'est-ce qui arrive ? are both used.
Managing To
- Je n'arrive pas à comprendre.
- I can't manage to understand.
- Tu arrives à lire sans lunettes ?
- Can you manage to read without glasses?
- Elle est arrivée à le convaincre.
- She managed to convince him.
- On n'arrive jamais à le joindre.
- We can never get hold of him.
This is far commoner than réussir à in speech, especially in the negative: je n'arrive pas à…
Reaching a Level or a Point
- L'eau m'arrive aux genoux.
- The water comes up to my knees.
- Nous arrivons à la fin du projet.
- We're getting to the end of the project.
- Il arrive au bout de ses forces.
- He's reaching the end of his strength.
- On arrive à cent euros au total.
- We get to a hundred euros in total.
The physical sense of reaching a height or a limit stays close to the original meaning of the verb.
How Arriver Works
Regular endings, an être auxiliary, and three constructions that carry three different meanings.
Arriver Takes Être
As a verb of movement with no direct object, arriver belongs to the être group. That means the participle agrees with the subject: il est arrivé, elle est arrivée, ils sont arrivés.
Mes cousines sont arrivées hier soir.
My cousins arrived last night.
être + arrivé(e)(s).
The Destination Takes À
Arriver is followed by à for the place reached, whatever English uses. Arriver à Paris, arriver à l'aéroport, arriver au travail. With countries the preposition follows the usual rules: arriver en France.
Nous sommes arrivés à l'hôtel sous la pluie.
We arrived at the hotel in the rain.
arriver à + place.
Arriver À Plus Infinitive Means Succeeding
With an infinitive, the à marks the goal you reach. The result is a verb of achievement: je n'arrive pas à me concentrer, I can't manage to concentrate. It says nothing about ability in the abstract, only about this attempt.
Je n'arrive pas à fermer la valise.
I can't get the suitcase shut.
arriver à faire = to manage to do.
The Impersonal Il Arrive Que Takes the Subjunctive
Il arrive que means it happens from time to time that, and it presents the event as occasional rather than factual, so the clause after it goes into the subjunctive.
Il arrive qu'il y ait des retards.
There are sometimes delays.
il arrive que + subjunctive.
The Person Affected Is Indirect
When something happens to someone, that person takes à or an indirect pronoun: il m'est arrivé quelque chose, qu'est-ce qui lui est arrivé ? The event itself is the grammatical subject.
Il m'est arrivé une drôle d'histoire.
A strange thing happened to me.
il m'est arrivé, il lui est arrivé.
Common Mistakes with Arriver
Incorrect: J'ai arrivé à la gare. — I arrived at the station.
Correct: Je suis arrivé à la gare. — I arrived at the station.
Arriver is one of the core être verbs. English uses have for every perfect, which makes avoir the instinctive but wrong choice here.
Incorrect: Elle est arrivé en retard. — She arrived late.
Correct: Elle est arrivée en retard. — She arrived late.
With être the participle agrees with the subject. Elle needs arrivée, elles needs arrivées, and the extra letters are silent, which is why they get forgotten.
Incorrect: Je n'arrive pas de dormir. — I can't get to sleep.
Correct: Je n'arrive pas à dormir. — I can't get to sleep.
Arriver takes à before an infinitive, because the infinitive is the goal being reached. De belongs to other verbs like essayer and refuser.
Incorrect: Il arrive qu'elle est en retard. — She's sometimes late.
Correct: Il arrive qu'elle soit en retard. — She's sometimes late.
Il arrive que presents the event as occasional rather than established, and French marks that with the subjunctive: soit, ait, vienne.
Arriver Conjugated
The endings are the plain -er endings. The only thing to watch is the être auxiliary in every compound tense.
Present, imperfect, future, conditional
No stem change anywhere: the stem is arriv- throughout, and the future is built on the full infinitive.
| Pronoun | présent | imparfait | futur | conditionnel |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| j' | arrive | arrivais | arriverai | arriverais |
| tu | arrives | arrivais | arriveras | arriverais |
| il / elle / on | arrive | arrivait | arrivera | arriverait |
| nous | arrivons | arrivions | arriverons | arriverions |
| vous | arrivez | arriviez | arriverez | arriveriez |
| ils / elles | arrivent | arrivaient | arriveront | arriveraient |
Only nous and vous sound different in the present. The other four forms are pronounced identically.
Compound tenses with être
Here the agreement shows up. The forms in brackets are the feminine and plural endings the participle takes.
| Pronoun | passé composé | plus-que-parfait | futur antérieur |
|---|---|---|---|
| je | suis arrivé(e) | étais arrivé(e) | serai arrivé(e) |
| tu | es arrivé(e) | étais arrivé(e) | seras arrivé(e) |
| il / elle / on | est arrivé(e) | était arrivé(e) | sera arrivé(e) |
| nous | sommes arrivé(e)s | étions arrivé(e)s | serons arrivé(e)s |
| vous | êtes arrivé(e)(s) | étiez arrivé(e)(s) | serez arrivé(e)(s) |
| ils / elles | sont arrivé(e)s | étaient arrivé(e)s | seront arrivé(e)s |
Vous carries two possible endings because it may be one polite person or several people: vous êtes arrivée, madame.
Subjunctive and imperative
The subjunctive is needed after il faut que and il arrive que. The imperative exists but is rare, since you can't easily order someone to arrive.
| Pronoun | subjonctif | impératif |
|---|---|---|
| que j' | arrive | — |
| que tu | arrives | arrive |
| qu'il / elle / on | arrive | — |
| que nous | arrivions | arrivons |
| que vous | arriviez | arrivez |
| qu'ils / elles | arrivent | — |
The tu imperative of an -er verb has no s: arrive à l'heure, pas de panique.
Arriver À: The Meaning That Isn't About Arriving
Two structures do most of the heavy lifting in conversation, and neither of them means to arrive.
Arriver à + infinitive
This is French's everyday way of saying manage to, succeed in, or be able to after some effort. In the negative it is one of the most frequent structures in the language.
- Je n'arrive pas à dormir.
- I can't get to sleep.
- Tu arrives à le porter tout seul ?
- Can you manage to carry it on your own?
- Elle n'arrive pas à se décider.
- She can't make up her mind.
- Nous sommes arrivés à tout finir.
- We managed to finish everything.
Compare pouvoir, which is about permission or capacity in principle: je ne peux pas dormir means something is preventing me.
Ça arrive and il arrive que
Used impersonally, arriver means to happen. Ça arrive is a complete reassurance on its own, and il arrive que introduces an occasional event with the subjunctive.
- Ne t'inquiète pas, ça arrive.
- Don't worry, it happens.
- Il arrive que le train soit supprimé.
- The train is sometimes cancelled.
- Il m'arrive de travailler le samedi.
- I sometimes work on Saturdays.
- Qu'est-ce qui t'arrive ?
- What's the matter with you?
Il m'arrive de plus an infinitive is the neat way to say I sometimes do something, with no adverb required.
Arriver in fixed phrases
A small set of idioms uses arriver with meanings that have drifted well away from movement.
- J'arrive !
- Coming!
- Il n'arrive pas à la cheville de son frère.
- He's nowhere near as good as his brother.
- Elle est arrivée première.
- She came first.
- Tu es arrivé à tes fins.
- You got what you wanted.
Arriver à ses fins, to achieve one's ends, keeps the goal-reaching sense that runs through the whole verb.
Arriver FAQs
- Does arriver take être or avoir?
- Être. Je suis arrivé, elle est arrivée, nous sommes arrivés. Because the auxiliary is être, the participle agrees with the subject in gender and number.
- What does je n'arrive pas à mean?
- I can't manage to. Je n'arrive pas à ouvrir la porte means the door won't open for me despite trying. It's about this particular attempt, whereas je ne peux pas suggests something is stopping you outright.
- What's the difference between arriver and se passer for 'to happen'?
- They overlap heavily. Qu'est-ce qui se passe ? and qu'est-ce qui arrive ? both ask what's going on. Arriver is preferred when something happens to a specific person: il m'est arrivé un truc bizarre.
- Which preposition does arriver take before a place?
- À: arriver à Paris, arriver à la gare, arriver au bureau. Countries follow their own rules, so it's arriver en France and arriver au Japon. For where you've come from, use de: j'arrive de Lyon.
- Why is it il arrive qu'elle soit en retard?
- Because il arrive que describes something that happens now and then rather than a fact, and that unsettled status is what the subjunctive marks in French. The same applies to il arrive qu'il pleuve.