Avoir, "to have", completes your first verb pair: j’ai, tu as, il a / elle a. It owns one famous French habit — age is something you HAVE: J’ai sept ans, j’ai quarante ans. One pattern serves a seven-year-old and their parent in the same sentence shape.
| French | English | Say it |
|---|---|---|
| j’ai | I have | zhay |
| tu as | you have (friend-form) | tew AH |
| il a | he has | ee-LAH |
| elle a | she has | eh-LAH |
| J’ai sept ans.literally "I have seven years" | I am seven years old. | zhay set AH(n) |
| Quel âge as-tu ? | How old are you? | kel ahzh ah-TEW |
| un an / des ans | a year (of age) | uh(n) nah(n) |
Respellings follow the course’s say-it key; the stressed syllable is in capitals. Print this lesson’s flashcards (PDF) — the words on the front, the English and respelling on the back.
Each word is read twice — say it back in the gap. Computer-generated voice; credits on the course page.
English says "I am seven"; French says "I have seven years". Say your own age now — j’ai + number + ans — and it will never feel odd again. Your 0–31 numbers cover most of the family.
The everyday sense works exactly as expected: J’ai un frère. Tu as un stylo ? Elle a deux chats. Verb, then un/une/deux, then the noun.
This free course is the reading half. The writing half — write-in lessons, daily practice pages with built-in review, self-checks and a full answer key — is the companion workbook series, The French Ladder: one workbook per module, fifteen in all, released band by band with the Basic band (Modules 1–5) first.
Turn this lesson’s words into flashcards, then space your reviews — the two habits the research behind our study guides backs hardest.
New lessons and French workbook news, first
One email when the numbers change. Double opt-in, no spam, unsubscribe anytime.