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A1 · Verb Constructions · Published
Expressions with Avoir
French says you have hunger, fear, and sleepiness: j’ai faim (I’m hungry), elle a peur (she’s afraid), on a sommeil (we’re sleepy). A whole family of everyday states and needs runs on avoir (to have) where English reaches for "to be" — the source of some of the most common beginner mistakes.
The family is smaller than it looks. One mechanical rule — avoir plus a bare noun, no article — covers most of it, and a few members add a fixed de or à. For the forms themselves (j’ai, tu as, il a…), see être and avoir.
In short
- Many English "be" states are avoir + a bare noun: j’ai faim, j’ai soif, il a froid — never "j’ai la faim".
- Needs and fears hook their object on with de: avoir besoin de, avoir envie de, avoir peur de.
- Pain is avoir mal à + body part, with à contracting: mal à la tête, mal au ventre.
- In the negative the noun stays bare — je n’ai pas faim — and de la reduces: pas de chance.
form of avoirnoun after avoirlinking de or ànegation· hover a highlighted word for its label
The states: faim, soif, chaud, froid, sommeil, peur, honte
These words feel like adjectives in English, but in French they are nouns — hunger, thirst, heat, sleepiness. Nouns are things you have, so the verb is avoir, and the noun stays completely bare: no le, la, or de la.
| Expression | Literally | English |
|---|---|---|
| avoir faim / soif | to have hunger / thirst | to be hungry / thirsty |
| avoir chaud / froid | to have heat / cold | to be hot / cold |
| avoir sommeil | to have sleepiness | to be sleepy |
| avoir peur (de) | to have fear (of) | to be afraid (of) |
| avoir honte (de) | to have shame (about) | to be ashamed (of) |
I’m sleepy — I’m going to bed.
— French has sleepiness: sommeil is a noun, so it runs on ai.
She’s afraid of storms.
— The thing you fear attaches with de — here des is de + les.
Aches and pains: avoir mal à
To say something hurts, French has pain at a body part: avoir mal à + the part. The à merges with the body part’s article:
À + article
- à + la stays à la: mal à la tête, à la gorge
- à + le contracts to au: mal au ventre, au dos
- à + les contracts to aux: mal aux dents, aux pieds
I’ve had a headache since this morning.
— Tête is feminine, so à la stays uncontracted.
He has a stomachache after lunch.
— Ventre is masculine: à + le contracts to au.
Right and wrong: avoir raison, avoir tort
Judgments follow the same pattern: raison (rightness) and tort (wrongness) are nouns you have. English "you are wrong" becomes tu as tort — bare noun again, no article.
You’re wrong — the film starts at eight.
— English "you are wrong", but French pairs as with the noun tort.
Needs and wants: avoir besoin de, avoir envie de
Avoir besoin de means "to need" — literally, to have need of something. Avoir envie de means "to feel like" or "to want". Both take a noun or an infinitive after de, which elides to d’ before a vowel.
I need a coffee before the meeting.
— After besoin, the thing you need attaches with de — elided to d’ before a vowel.
She feels like traveling this year.
— envie + de + infinitive = "to feel like doing".
The rest of the family
Avoir de la chance (to be lucky) keeps its article — luck comes as a quantity:
Il a de la chance : il reste deux places.
Events don’t "take place" in French — they have place: avoir lieu.
La réunion a lieu jeudi matin.
Finally, avoir l’air + adjective means "to look, to seem". It also keeps its article, and the adjective agrees with the subject.
She looks happy today.
— A rare avoir phrase with an article: l’air. The adjective agrees with the subject: elle → contente.
Très and pas
To intensify, use très even though faim and soif are nouns — j’ai très faim is fully standard.
In the negative (negation), the bare nouns simply stay bare: je n’ai pas faim, il n’a pas sommeil. Members built with the partitive de la reduce to de after pas: je n’ai pas de chance. (Avoir l’air keeps its l’: il n’a pas l’air content.)
Open the window — we’re really hot.
— The intensifier before chaud is très, never beaucoup.
Are you hungry? — No, I’m not hungry.
— The noun stays bare in the negative too: pas faim, with no de.
He has no luck: it’s raining on his moving day.
— In the negative, de la reduces: pas de chance, never "pas de la chance".
Common mistakes
✗Je suis peur des chiens.
✓J’ai peur des chiens.
Peur is a noun — fear is something you have. To use être you would need an adjective: je suis effrayé.
✗J’ai la faim après le sport.
✓J’ai faim après le sport.
The expression uses a bare noun: avoir faim, avoir soif, avoir froid. Adding an article breaks it.
✗Tu as besoin un stylo ?
✓Tu as besoin d’un stylo ?
Besoin never takes its object directly: it always connects with de, elided to d’ before the vowel of un.
✗Elle a mal à le dos.
✓Elle a mal au dos.
À + le always contracts to au: mal au dos, mal au ventre. The sequence "à le" never survives in French.
Check yourself
1 / 5Il ___ peur des araignées.
2 / 5Elle a mal ___ tête.
3 / 5Tu as besoin ___ aide ?
4 / 5Nous n’avons pas ___ chance en ce moment.
5 / 5J’ai ___ faim après la randonnée.
Frequently asked questions
What does avoir besoin de mean?
Avoir besoin de means "to need" — literally "to have need of". It works with a noun (j’ai besoin d’un stylo) or an infinitive (j’ai besoin de dormir), and the de is obligatory.
What does avoir envie de mean?
Avoir envie de means "to feel like" or "to want": j’ai envie d’un café, j’ai envie de danser. It is softer than vouloir (je veux), which can sound demanding.
Do you say "je suis chaud" or "j’ai chaud" in French?
For temperature, always j’ai chaud — "I feel hot". Je suis chaud exists but is slang for "I’m keen / up for it" — and especially in the feminine (elle est chaude) it can be heard as a sexual come-on — so for temperature it sounds very wrong.
How do you say that something hurts in French?
Use avoir mal à + the body part, contracting à with the article: j’ai mal à la tête (my head hurts), j’ai mal au ventre, j’ai mal aux dents. The body part takes its ordinary article, never a possessive — j’ai mal à ma tête is a classic mistake.
Why is there no article in "j’ai faim"?
Avoir faim is a fixed expression, and the noun inside it stays bare — "j’ai la faim" is not French. The same applies to soif, froid, sommeil, raison, and peur; only a few members like avoir de la chance and avoir l’air keep an article.
Memory tip
When an English "I am ___" sentence describes a body state — hungry, thirsty, hot, cold, sleepy, scared — suspect a hidden noun and reach for avoir. If a true adjective follows (fatigué, content), you are back with être.
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