Language/French/Grammar/Intransitive-verbs-and-auxiliary-“être”
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Intransitive verbs and auxiliary “être”
“être” in compound tenses
A small set of intransitive verbs, some very frequently used, appear with the auxiliary être in compound tenses:
French | Translation |
---|---|
Un léger brouillard est monté de la mer | A mist rose from the sea |
Christian est tombé du haut de la falaise | Christian fell from the cliff |
Elle était descendue | She had gone down |
Marie-Christine est née en 1968 | Marie-Christine was born in 1968 |
The verbs which take être in this way are:
French | Translation |
---|---|
aller | to go |
arriver | to arrive |
décéder | to die |
demeurer | to remain |
descendre | to go down |
devenir | to become |
entrer | to enter |
monter | to go up |
mourir | to die |
naître | to be born |
partir | to leave |
rentrer | to go home |
rester | to stay |
retourner | to return |
revenir | to come back |
sortir | to go out |
tomber | to fall |
venire | to come |
and verbs derived from the above: redescendre, remonter, renaître, repartir, retomber, parvenir and survenir.
Intransitive verbs with avoir or être
A further set of intransitive verbs, e.g. accourir, apparaître, passer, can appear either with avoir or with être in compound tenses.
It would seem that the use of être is now more common and avoir may appear dated:
French | Translation |
---|---|
Quand il a appris la nouvelle il est accouru | When he heard the news he came quickly |
Il nous est apparu que le gardien avait menti | It became apparent to us that the porter had lied |
Il est passé nous voir | He came to see us |
Other Chapters
Other Lessons
- Relative Clause
- Transitive and Intransitive Verbs
- Plurals of nouns ending in –ou
- Verb agreement with fractions
- Verbs whose stems end in c— or g—
- Combinations of adjectives
- Typical use of the definite article
- ensuite VS puis
- Adjectives used as adverbs
- Agreement of past participle if direct object is placed before
- Adjectives which normally follow the noun
- Gender of Nouns Names of ships and restaurants
- L’on VS on
- Agreement of past participles with preceding direct objects in questions
- Demonstrative determiners