Skip to content
VirtusAcademy

Present Tense: avoir and être

FoundationHigherAQA

Revise Present Tense: avoir and être for GCSE French with this free worksheet and full mark scheme — Foundation and Higher exam-style practice with worked answers for AQA GCSE French (8652). Avoir and être are the two most common irregular verbs and must be learnt in full.

Free downloads

These worksheets and mark schemes are original, written for Virtus Academy and checked against the current AQA specification. Every worksheet comes with a full mark scheme.

Foundation

WorksheetFoundation · PDFMark SchemeFoundation · PDF

Higher

WorksheetHigher · PDFMark SchemeHigher · PDF

Topic overview

Avoir and être are the two most important verbs in French, both because they are used constantly and because they form the perfect tense.

Avoir means to have: j'ai, tu as, il a, nous avons, vous avez, ils ont. Être means to be: je suis, tu es, il est, nous sommes, vous êtes, ils sont.

Neither follows any pattern, so both must be memorised completely. They are worth the effort because every perfect tense sentence needs one of them as the auxiliary verb. Watch the circumflex in vous êtes, and note that il a and ils ont sound different, which is a common listening trap.

Revision notes

Avoir in full

J'ai, tu as, il a, elle a, on a, nous avons, vous avez, ils ont, elles ont.

No pattern connects these forms. Note ils ont — the liaison makes it sound like ils zont, which distinguishes it from il a in speech.

Être in full

Je suis, tu es, il est, elle est, on est, nous sommes, vous êtes, ils sont, elles sont.

Vous êtes carries a circumflex on the e, which must be written. Tu es and il est sound very similar, so the pronoun is the clue.

Why they matter most

Both are used constantly in their own right, and both serve as auxiliary verbs in the perfect tense.

Every perfect tense sentence needs avoir or être. Getting these two wrong therefore affects far more than the present tense.

Key points

  • Avoir means to have.
  • Être means to be.
  • Neither follows a pattern.
  • Both must be memorised completely.
  • Vous êtes carries a circumflex.
  • Both are auxiliaries in the perfect tense.

Worked examples

Example 1

Give the nous form of avoir. [2 marks]

Working

nous avonsuse the irregular nous form
Avoir is irregular, so the form must be learned rather than worked outexplain the irregularity

Example 2

Give the vous form of être. [2 marks]

Working

vous êtesuse the irregular vous form
The circumflex on the e must be writtennote the accent

Example 3

Give the ils form of both avoir and être. [2 marks]

Working

ils ont for avoirgive the avoir form
ils sont for êtregive the être form

Common mistakes

  • Mixing up ils ont and ils sont.

    Ont is avoir; sont is être.

  • Omitting the circumflex in vous êtes.

    It is required.

  • Trying to apply a pattern.

    Both verbs are entirely irregular.

  • Confusing tu es with tu as.

    Es is être; as is avoir.

Exam tips

  • Memorise both verbs completely.
  • Write the circumflex in vous êtes.
  • Practise distinguishing ont and sont.
  • Remember both are needed for the perfect tense.

Key terms

Avoir
The verb to have.
Être
The verb to be.
Auxiliary
A helper verb used to form the perfect tense.
Circumflex
The accent on the e in vous êtes.

Related topics

Written and reviewed against the current AQA specification. Spotted an error? Let us know.