French grammar · Intermediate
French Auxiliary Verbs: Choosing Between Avoir and Être
French builds every compound tense with one of two auxiliaries, avoir or être. Most verbs take avoir (j'ai mangé); verbs of movement and change of state plus all pronominal verbs take être (elle est venue, il s'est levé). The auxiliary you pick also decides whether the past participle agrees.
J'ai fini mon travail, mais elle est déjà partie.
I've finished my work, but she has already left.
What it is
An auxiliary is a verb that carries the grammar while a second verb carries the meaning. In j'ai mangé, avoir is conjugated and manger sits frozen as a past participle. French has exactly two auxiliaries, and the whole system of compound tenses rests on choosing the right one.
J'ai parlé, je suis parti, je me suis levé. — I spoke, I left, I got up.
How to spot it
Ask what kind of verb it is. If it can take a direct object, it takes avoir. If it describes going, coming, staying, being born or dying, it takes être. If it has a reflexive pronoun, it takes être with no exceptions.
- Nous avons vendu la voiture. — We sold the car. (direct object, so avoir)
- Elle est descendue à la cave. — She went down to the cellar. (movement, so être)
- Ils se sont réveillés très tard. — They woke up very late. (pronominal, so être)
- Il est devenu médecin. — He became a doctor. (change of state, so être)
The e on descendue is the giveaway. Être makes the participle agree with the subject; avoir leaves it alone, which is why vendu never changes in nous avons vendu.
Auxiliary Verbs Quick Reference
Which auxiliary each group of verbs uses
| Verb group | Auxiliary | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Verbs with a direct object | avoir | j'ai acheté le pain — I bought the bread |
| Aller, venir, partir, arriver | être | je suis allé — I went |
| Entrer, sortir, monter, descendre | être | elle est sortie — she went out |
| Naître, mourir, devenir, rester | être | il est né en mai — he was born in May |
| Tomber, revenir, retourner | être | tu es tombé — you fell |
| Every pronominal verb | être | nous nous sommes assis — we sat down |
| Être and avoir themselves | avoir | j'ai été, j'ai eu — I was, I had |
| Sortir, monter and co. with an object | avoir | j'ai sorti la poubelle — I took the bin out |
Common Auxiliary Verbs Examples in French
The two auxiliaries in the tenses you use every day:
Avoir, the Default
- J'ai acheté du pain ce matin.
- I bought bread this morning.
- Tu as compris la question ?
- Did you understand the question?
- Nous avons attendu une heure entière.
- We waited a whole hour.
- Elle a eu très peur.
- She was very frightened.
Around nine verbs in ten take avoir, so it's the sensible default when you're unsure.
The Être Verbs
- Je suis arrivé en retard.
- I arrived late.
- Elle est restée chez elle.
- She stayed at home.
- Nous sommes montés au sixième étage.
- We went up to the sixth floor.
- Ils sont nés le même jour.
- They were born on the same day.
This group is short and closed: no new verb joins it. Learning the list once is enough.
Pronominal Verbs
- Je me suis trompé de train.
- I took the wrong train.
- Elle s'est lavé les mains.
- She washed her hands.
- Nous nous sommes rencontrés à Lyon.
- We met in Lyon.
- Ils se sont écrit pendant des années.
- They wrote to each other for years.
Lavé and écrit don't agree here: in the first the direct object follows the verb, in the second se is indirect.
The Other Compound Tenses
- J'avais déjà mangé quand tu es arrivé.
- I had already eaten when you arrived.
- Elle était partie avant midi.
- She had left before noon.
- Quand tu auras fini, appelle-moi.
- When you've finished, call me.
- Je serais venu si j'avais su.
- I would have come if I had known.
Change the tense of the auxiliary and you change the compound tense. The participle never moves.
How the Auxiliary System Works
Five ideas cover the whole system, from choosing the auxiliary to knowing when the participle changes shape.
The Auxiliary Carries the Tense
The participle is fixed; the auxiliary does all the tense work. Put avoir in the present and you get the passé composé, in the imperfect and you get the pluperfect, in the future and you get the future perfect.
J'ai mangé, j'avais mangé, j'aurai mangé.
I ate, I had eaten, I will have eaten.
One participle, six tenses.
Transitive Verbs Take Avoir
If a verb can be followed directly by a thing, it takes avoir. That covers almost the entire language: manger, voir, prendre, dire, finir, vendre and thousands more.
Nous avons pris le dernier métro.
We took the last metro.
Object in sight, use avoir.
Movement and Change of State Take Être
A closed set of intransitive verbs describes arriving, leaving, going up, going down, staying, being born and dying. These use être, and none of them can take a direct object in that meaning.
Elle est partie sans rien dire.
She left without saying anything.
Coming and going, use être.
A Reflexive Pronoun Forces Être
Any verb used pronominally switches to être, even one that takes avoir on its own. Laver takes avoir, but se laver takes être, because the reflexive pronoun changes the structure of the sentence.
J'ai lavé la voiture, puis je me suis lavé.
I washed the car, then I washed myself.
Reflexive pronoun, always être.
The Auxiliary Decides Agreement
With être the participle agrees with the subject: elle est allée, ils sont allés. With avoir it agrees with nothing, unless a direct object has moved in front of the verb, in which case it agrees with that.
Les photos que j'ai prises sont floues.
The photos I took are blurry.
être → subject; avoir → only a preceding object.
Common Mistakes with Auxiliary Verbs
Incorrect: J'ai allé au marché. — I went to the market.
Correct: Je suis allé au marché. — I went to the market.
Aller is the most frequent être verb in the language. English has only one auxiliary for the perfect, so avoir gets used by default until the être list is memorised.
Incorrect: Je m'ai levé à six heures. — I got up at six.
Correct: Je me suis levé à six heures. — I got up at six.
A reflexive pronoun forces être, whatever the verb does on its own. There is no pronominal verb in French that takes avoir.
Incorrect: Elle est arrivé hier soir. — She arrived last night.
Correct: Elle est arrivée hier soir. — She arrived last night.
With être the participle behaves like an adjective and agrees with the subject. Elle needs the feminine -e, elles needs -es.
Incorrect: Je suis eu un problème. — I had a problem.
Correct: J'ai eu un problème. — I had a problem.
Avoir is conjugated with itself, not with être. The same goes for être: j'ai été, never je suis été.
The Two Auxiliaries Conjugated
You cannot build a compound tense without these forms, so they are worth knowing cold. Each column below is the auxiliary alone; the participle simply follows it.
Present: the passé composé
The present of avoir and être, which gives you je suis allé and j'ai mangé.
| Pronoun | avoir | être |
|---|---|---|
| je / j' | ai | suis |
| tu | as | es |
| il / elle / on | a | est |
| nous | avons | sommes |
| vous | avez | êtes |
| ils / elles | ont | sont |
Note the circumflex on vous êtes. It's the only accented form in either paradigm.
Imperfect: the pluperfect
Put the auxiliary in the imperfect and the compound tense becomes a past before another past.
| Pronoun | avoir | être |
|---|---|---|
| je / j' | avais | étais |
| tu | avais | étais |
| il / elle / on | avait | était |
| nous | avions | étions |
| vous | aviez | étiez |
| ils / elles | avaient | étaient |
J'avais fini, j'étais parti. English does the same thing with had: I had finished, I had left.
Future and conditional
The future of the auxiliary gives the future perfect; the conditional gives the past conditional used in si sentences.
| Pronoun | avoir (futur) | être (futur) | avoir (cond.) | être (cond.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| je / j' | aurai | serai | aurais | serais |
| tu | auras | seras | aurais | serais |
| il / elle / on | aura | sera | aurait | serait |
| nous | aurons | serons | aurions | serions |
| vous | aurez | serez | auriez | seriez |
| ils / elles | auront | seront | auraient | seraient |
Both stems are irregular but predictable once learned: aur- and ser- run through the future and the conditional alike.
Subjunctive
The past subjunctive needs the present subjunctive of the auxiliary, which is irregular in both verbs.
| Pronoun | avoir | être |
|---|---|---|
| que je / j' | aie | sois |
| que tu | aies | sois |
| qu'il / elle / on | ait | soit |
| que nous | ayons | soyons |
| que vous | ayez | soyez |
| qu'ils / elles | aient | soient |
Je suis content qu'elle soit venue, je regrette qu'il ait oublié. These are the forms behind every past subjunctive.
Verbs That Take Both Auxiliaries
A handful of être verbs switch to avoir the moment you give them a direct object, and the meaning shifts with them.
Monter, descendre, sortir, rentrer, retourner
Used alone they describe the subject moving, and they take être. Give them something to move and they become transitive, taking avoir.
- Elle est sortie vers huit heures.
- She went out around eight.
- Elle a sorti son passeport.
- She took out her passport.
- Nous sommes descendus du train.
- We got off the train.
- Nous avons descendu les valises.
- We brought the suitcases down.
The test is simple: if there is a noun sitting straight after the verb, use avoir.
Passer
Passer takes être when it means to go by and avoir when it means to spend time or to hand something over.
- Je suis passé chez toi hier.
- I dropped by your place yesterday.
- J'ai passé deux ans à Lyon.
- I spent two years in Lyon.
- Elle m'a passé le sel.
- She passed me the salt.
- Le train est passé sans s'arrêter.
- The train went past without stopping.
Passer un examen means to sit an exam, not to pass it. To pass it is réussir un examen.
Être and avoir in their own compound tenses
Both auxiliaries are conjugated with avoir when they appear as ordinary verbs, which surprises learners who expect être to take itself.
- J'ai été malade toute la semaine.
- I was ill all week.
- Nous avons eu de la chance.
- We were lucky.
- Il a été très clair.
- He was very clear.
- Tu as eu raison de partir.
- You were right to leave.
Je suis été does not exist in French at any level of formality.
Auxiliary Verbs FAQs
- What are the auxiliary verbs in French?
- Avoir and être. They are the only two, and every compound tense in the language is one of them plus a past participle: j'ai vu, je suis venu, j'avais vu, je serais venu.
- Which verbs take être in the passé composé?
- A short list of intransitive verbs of movement and change of state — aller, venir, arriver, partir, entrer, sortir, monter, descendre, rester, tomber, naître, mourir, devenir, revenir, rentrer, retourner, passer — plus every pronominal verb: je me suis assis.
- Why does the past participle sometimes have an extra e or s?
- Because être makes it agree with the subject, exactly as an adjective would: elle est allée, ils sont allés, elles sont allées. After avoir there is no agreement unless a direct object comes before the verb: la lettre que j'ai reçue.
- Do pronominal verbs always take être?
- Yes, without exception. Even verbs that normally take avoir switch when a reflexive pronoun appears: j'ai lavé la voiture but je me suis lavé. Agreement then depends on whether the pronoun is the direct object.
- Can the same verb take both auxiliaries?
- Yes, and the auxiliary tells you the meaning. Elle est sortie means she went out; elle a sorti son passeport means she took out her passport. Monter, descendre, rentrer, retourner and passer all work this way.