Verb Être in French: Use, Conjugation, Examples, Exercises

Être

The verb être in French means “to be” and is used to express the characteristics, states, qualities, or location of people, animals or things, for example “You are pretty” – “Tu es jolie”, “The animals are in the field” – “Les animaux sont à la campagne”.

What is a verb

A verb is a word that expresses an action or an act, a movement or a state. According to Larousse, verbs are the activities that people, animals or things perform or suffer and situations or states in which they are found. Examples of verbs are: to sing, to eat, to live, to be, to have.

Infinitive of the verb

When a verb is in its infinitive form, it is not conjugated and does not indicate who is performing or experiencing the action. For example, “to study” does not indicate who is studying. However, when verbs are conjugated, as in “i study”, “she studies”, it does indicate who is performing the action.

Conjugation of the verb être

Present tense

French	English
Je suis	I am
Tu es	You are
Il/elle est	He/She is
Nous sommes	We are
Vous etes	You are
Ils/Elles sont	They are

Examples or sentences with être

Tu es fort. – You are strong.
Elle es jolie. – She is pretty.
Vous etes haut. – You are tall.
Il est petite. – He is small.
Nous sommes heureux. – We are happy.
Vous êtes fous. – You are crazy.
Ma soeur est à la France. – My sister is in France.

Être in imperfect tense (l’imparfait)

The verb être en l’imparfait is a verb tense used to describe actions or states that were ongoing or habitual in the past.

French	English
J’ étais	I was
Tu étais	You were
Il / elle était	He/she was
Nous étions	We were
Vous étiez	You were
Ils / elles étaient	They were

Examples

J’étais ici hier. – I was here yesterday.
Vous étiez chez mois. – You were at my house.
Il était heureux. – He was happy.
Tu étais triste. – You were sad.
Nous étions là. – We were there.

How and when to use être

The verb être is used to express characteristics, movements and with reflexive verbs.

To express characteristics, or more technically, in attributive sentences

Examples

Il est bien. – He is fine.
Elle était en France. – She was in France.
Le ciel est bleu. – It’s blue.
Les chats étaient grands. – The cats were big.

As an auxiliary of verbs of movement

Verbs of movement (les verbes du mouvement) express displacement from one place to another, they are sixteen verbs and some are: To go, to arrive, to leave, to run, etc.

An auxiliary verb is a complementary verb, which is used to accompany another main verb.

Examples

Je suis venu. – I have come. Suis (to be) and venu (to come) are two different verbs, “venir” (to come) are the main verbs and “être” or “to be” are the auxiliary ones.
Ils sont partis. – They are gone.
Tu es arrive. – You have arrived.
Il est parti. – He is gone or he left.

As an auxiliary verb of reflexive verbs

Reflexive verbs reflect the action back to the subject, like “I dress myself”.

Examples

Je me suis lavées les mains. – I washed my hands.
Elle s’est coupé la main. – She cut her hand.
Tu t’es habillé rapidement. –You got dressed quickly.
Il/Elle s’est levé(e) – He/she got up.

Exercises

Fill in the blank boxes with the corresponding translation

I am

You are (Singular)

He is

She is

We are

You are (2nd person plural)

They are (Males and females)

They are (Females)

I was

From now on, fill in the boxes with Past perfect conjugation (I’imparfait)

You were

He was

She was

We were

You were

They were (Male and females)

They were (Females only)

Suggested exercise

1. Write 5 or more sentences containing the verb Être in the present simple, one for each subject pronoun (Je, tu, il, elle, nous, vous, ils and elles)

2. Write 5 or more sentences containing the verb Être in the past perfect conjugation (I’imparfait)
one for each subject pronoun.