Three motion verbs that describe what your body is doing rather than where you are going: marcher (walk), courir (run), sauter (jump). They are everyday-vocabulary essentials, but each one carries idiomatic weight beyond the literal meaning. Marcher doubles as the everyday verb for to work / to function (a malfunctioning train ne marche pas; a working plan ça marche !). Courir extends to running risks, running errands, and a handful of useful set phrases. Sauter picks up to skip (a page, a meal) and a transitive use that English splits across multiple verbs.
Crucially, all three of these verbs take avoir in compound tenses — unlike aller, venir, partir, sortir, arriver, rentrer, retourner, which take être. This is the easy news for English speakers used to avoir (= to have) as the auxiliary: with these three verbs, the past tense behaves the way you'd naively expect. Their participles do not agree with the subject.
Why these three take avoir
The maison d'être — the closed list of motion verbs that take être — covers verbs of arrival, departure, and change of location: aller, venir, partir, sortir, entrer, monter, descendre, arriver, retourner, rentrer, tomber, naître, mourir, rester, devenir, passer. The shared feature is that these verbs describe a change of state (you are now elsewhere, you are now here, you are now born, you are now dead).
Marcher, courir, sauter describe manner of motion — the physical act of moving — without inherent reference to a destination or a state change. You can walk, run, or jump indefinitely, in place, or in circles, without arriving anywhere. So they sit outside the maison d'être and use the default auxiliary, avoir. This pattern generalizes: most manner-of-motion verbs (marcher, courir, sauter, danser, glisser, ramper, nager, voler, rouler) take avoir. The change-of-location verbs in the maison d'être take être.
Marcher: walking, working, functioning
Marcher primarily means to walk. It is also the standard French verb for to work / to function — a usage so frequent that the dictionary gloss "walk" alone vastly underrates the verb's importance.
Conjugation
Regular -er. Memorize once and forget.
| Person | Présent | Imparfait | Futur | Subjonctif |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| je | marche | marchais | marcherai | marche |
| tu | marches | marchais | marcheras | marches |
| il / elle / on | marche | marchait | marchera | marche |
| nous | marchons | marchions | marcherons | marchions |
| vous | marchez | marchiez | marcherez | marchiez |
| ils / elles | marchent | marchaient | marcheront | marchent |
Past participle: marché (regular). Auxiliary: avoir in all uses.
Marcher: walking
J'ai marché trois heures dans le parc ce matin.
I walked for three hours in the park this morning.
Ce n'est pas loin, on peut y aller à pied. On marche ?
It's not far, we can walk there. Shall we walk?
Le bébé commence à marcher, il a treize mois.
The baby is starting to walk — he's thirteen months old.
Marche moins vite, je n'arrive pas à te suivre !
Walk slower — I can't keep up!
The verb is intransitive in this meaning. To name the place you walk through, use dans + place (marcher dans le parc, dans la rue). To name the destination of your walk, French usually prefers aller à + place + à pied (aller au marché à pied — to walk to the market).
Marcher: to work, function
This is the high-frequency idiomatic use. Marcher = to work / to function — for machines, plans, businesses, ideas, anything that does what it's supposed to do.
Le wifi ne marche pas, j'appelle le technicien.
The wifi isn't working — I'm calling the technician.
Mon imprimante a arrêté de marcher hier soir.
My printer stopped working last night.
Ce restaurant marche très bien depuis qu'ils ont changé de chef.
This restaurant has been doing great since they changed chefs.
Ton plan ne va pas marcher, j'en suis sûr.
Your plan isn't going to work — I'm sure of it.
The English ranges of to work (a machine works, a plan works, a business works) are covered almost entirely by marcher. The close synonym fonctionner exists but is more formal/technical; in everyday speech, marcher dominates.
Ça marche !
The ubiquitous spoken exclamation. Ça marche ! = OK! / It works! / Sounds good! / Got it! — used as a quick agreement signal.
— On se voit demain à treize heures ? — Ça marche !
— Shall we meet tomorrow at one? — Sounds good!
— Tu peux passer prendre du pain ? — Ça marche, j'y vais.
— Can you grab some bread on the way? — Got it, I'm on it.
— On essaie cette nouvelle recette ? — Ça marche !
— Want to try this new recipe? — Works for me!
Equivalent in usage to d'accord, ok, c'est bon. Casual register but extremely common.
Marcher dans la combine — to fall for it
A useful colloquial idiom: marcher (dans une combine, dans une histoire) = to fall for / be taken in by something. (informal)
Il m'a raconté une histoire abracadabrante et j'ai marché.
He told me some crazy story and I fell for it.
Ne marche pas dans son jeu, il essaie juste de te manipuler.
Don't fall for his game — he's just trying to manipulate you.
The image is of someone who walks straight into a trap or a story without seeing through it. The fixed phrase marcher dans la combine / dans le panneau is purely figurative — un panneau here is a snare, not a sign.
Courir: running
Courir = to run. Irregular conjugation with a unique futur stem and an irregular past participle. Worth memorizing carefully because it's a high-frequency verb.
Conjugation
| Person | Présent | Imparfait | Futur | Subjonctif |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| je | cours | courais | courrai | coure |
| tu | cours | courais | courras | coures |
| il / elle / on | court | courait | courra | coure |
| nous | courons | courions | courrons | courions |
| vous | courez | couriez | courrez | couriez |
| ils / elles | courent | couraient | courront | courent |
Past participle: couru (in u, like vu, lu, su, eu). Auxiliary: avoir. Past participle does not agree with the subject (avoir-rule).
Three points to memorize:
- Single-r stem throughout the present: cour- in both singular (cours, cours, court) and plural (courons, courez, courent). Unlike partir or sortir, there is no consonant alternation — the stem is uniform.
- Double rr in the futur and conditionnel: je courrai, tu courras, il courra (futur) — and je courrais, tu courrais, il courrait (conditionnel). The courr- stem with double r is unusual; only a handful of verbs do this (pouvoir → pourrai, mourir → mourrai, voir → verrai, envoyer → enverrai). Pronunciation distinguishes je courrais (conditionnel, double r slightly more rolled) from je courais (imparfait, single r) only weakly in casual speech, but the spelling is rigid.
- Subjonctif uses cour-: que je coure, que tu coures, qu'il coure. Unremarkable.
Courir: running
Je cours dans le parc tous les matins avant le travail.
I run in the park every morning before work.
Cours, le bus est là !
Run — the bus is here!
Elle a couru un marathon l'année dernière.
She ran a marathon last year.
Les enfants courent partout dans la cour.
The kids are running everywhere in the playground.
The verb is generally intransitive in everyday use. The destination is introduced by vers (courir vers la sortie, run toward the exit), the route by dans (courir dans le parc).
Courir un risque, courir partout
Courir un risque = to run a risk — and a small group of similar set phrases.
Tu cours un gros risque en signant ce contrat sans le lire.
You're running a big risk signing this contract without reading it.
On court partout pour finir avant la date limite.
We're running around to finish before the deadline.
Je n'ai pas le temps, je cours d'un rendez-vous à l'autre.
I don't have time — I'm running from one meeting to the next.
The figurative courir partout / courir d'un X à l'autre is the equivalent of English running around (like crazy) — chaotic busyness.
Courir le monde
A literary or formal idiom: courir le monde = to roam the world, travel widely. (literary)
Dans sa jeunesse, il a couru le monde avant de s'installer à Lyon.
In his youth, he roamed the world before settling in Lyon. (literary)
This courir + thing construction (transitive use) appears in a few elevated phrases. In everyday French, courir stays intransitive.
Sauter: jumping (and skipping)
Sauter = to jump. Regular -er, easy conjugation. Has a useful transitive use meaning to skip (a page, a meal, a step) that English handles with a different verb.
Conjugation
Regular -er. Pure boilerplate.
| Person | Présent | Imparfait | Futur | Subjonctif |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| je | saute | sautais | sauterai | saute |
| tu | sautes | sautais | sauteras | sautes |
| il / elle / on | saute | sautait | sautera | saute |
| nous | sautons | sautions | sauterons | sautions |
| vous | sautez | sautiez | sauterez | sautiez |
| ils / elles | sautent | sautaient | sauteront | sautent |
Past participle: sauté (regular). Auxiliary: avoir.
Sauter: jumping
Le chien saute dès qu'il me voit rentrer.
The dog jumps as soon as he sees me come home.
Les enfants ont sauté dans la piscine en hurlant.
The kids jumped into the pool screaming.
Saute par-dessus la flaque, elle est trop grande pour passer dedans.
Jump over the puddle — it's too big to walk through.
Mon cœur a sauté quand j'ai entendu son nom.
My heart jumped when I heard his name.
The verb is intransitive in its core meaning, with prepositions for the spatial relationship: sauter dans (jump into), sauter par-dessus (jump over), sauter de (jump off / from), sauter à (jump rope: sauter à la corde).
Sauter de joie
A fixed idiom: sauter de joie = to jump for joy.
Quand elle a appris la nouvelle, elle a sauté de joie.
When she heard the news, she jumped for joy.
J'ai sauté de joie en voyant les résultats.
I jumped for joy when I saw the results.
The construction sauter de + emotion (joie, peur, surprise) names the trigger of the jump.
Sauter qqch: skipping
The transitive use that English speakers consistently miss: sauter + a thing = to skip / leave out. Used for skipping pages, meals, steps, paragraphs.
J'ai sauté trois pages, le livre devenait ennuyeux.
I skipped three pages — the book was getting boring.
Tu as sauté le petit-déjeuner ce matin ? C'est pour ça que tu as faim.
Did you skip breakfast this morning? That's why you're hungry.
On va sauter cette étape, elle n'est pas essentielle.
We're going to skip this step — it's not essential.
Saute le premier paragraphe et commence ici.
Skip the first paragraph and start here.
The English-speaker intuition is to skip = passer, but passer in this meaning sounds wrong (passer une page is possible but unusual). The standard verb is sauter.
Sauter un repas, sauter le pas
Two more high-frequency idioms.
Sauter un repas = skip a meal.
Je saute souvent le déjeuner quand je suis débordée au bureau.
I often skip lunch when I'm slammed at the office.
Sauter le pas = to take the plunge — to finally do something you've been hesitating about.
Après deux ans à hésiter, j'ai sauté le pas et j'ai démissionné.
After two years of hesitating, I took the plunge and quit.
Allez, saute le pas, demande-lui en mariage !
Come on, take the plunge — propose to her!
The literal meaning is to jump over the (ditch / step); the figurative meaning is overcoming hesitation.
Other manner-of-motion verbs
Briefly, the rest of the everyday set, all avoir-auxiliary:
- Danser (dance) — regular -er. Tu danses ? (Do you dance? / Wanna dance?)
- Glisser (slide / slip) — regular -er. Attention, ça glisse (Watch out, it's slippery).
- Ramper (crawl) — regular -er. Le bébé rampe avant de marcher (The baby crawls before walking).
- Nager (swim) — regular -er with a g → ge spelling change before a/o (nous nageons). Je sais nager depuis l'âge de cinq ans.
- Voler (fly) — regular -er. L'avion vole à dix mille mètres (The plane is flying at ten thousand meters). Same verb means to steal.
- Rouler (roll, drive) — regular -er. Roule moins vite (Drive slower).
For the change-of-location verbs that take être in compound tenses (monter, descendre, tomber, etc.), see maison-detre-mnemonic.
Common Mistakes
Mistake 1: Using être with these three verbs in compound tenses.
❌ Je suis marché trois heures. / Il est couru au bureau.
Manner-of-motion verbs take avoir, not être.
✅ J'ai marché trois heures. / Il a couru au bureau.
I walked for three hours. / He ran to the office.
This trips up English speakers who have absorbed the rule "motion verbs take être." The rule is more precise: change-of-location verbs take être; manner-of-motion verbs take avoir.
Mistake 2: Using fonctionner where marcher is more idiomatic.
❌ Mon téléphone ne fonctionne pas. (in casual speech)
Grammatical but stiff. In everyday spoken French, marcher is the verb.
✅ Mon téléphone ne marche pas.
My phone isn't working.
Fonctionner is fine and slightly more formal, but in casual conversation, marcher is the natural choice.
Mistake 3: Forgetting the double rr in the futur of courir.
❌ Demain, je courai dans le parc.
The futur of courir is courrai with double r — like pouvoir → pourrai.
✅ Demain, je courrai dans le parc.
Tomorrow, I'll run in the park.
A small spelling slip but an important one. Courir, mourir, pouvoir, voir all double the r in the futur stem.
Mistake 4: Using passer for to skip a page or a meal.
❌ J'ai passé trois pages. (meaning: I skipped three pages)
Passer can mean 'spend (time)' or 'pass by,' but for 'skip' a page or meal, use sauter.
✅ J'ai sauté trois pages.
I skipped three pages.
This is one of the most common cross-linguistic interferences. English to skip maps to French sauter, not passer, in this context.
Mistake 5: Translating to take a walk literally.
❌ Je prends une marche.
French does not say 'take a walk' — that's a calque from English.
✅ Je vais me promener. / Je vais faire un tour.
I'm going for a walk.
For taking a walk, French uses se promener (reflexive) or faire un tour / faire une promenade. Marcher describes the act of walking but doesn't naturally take an indefinite article.
Mistake 6: Using courir après where English uses to chase.
❌ Le chien chasse le chat. (meaning: the dog is running after the cat)
Chasser exists but means 'hunt' or 'drive away.' For 'run after / chase,' the construction is courir après.
✅ Le chien court après le chat.
The dog is running after the cat.
Chasser is to hunt (like chasser un cerf, hunt a deer) or to drive out (chasser quelqu'un d'une maison). Everyday chase is courir après.
Mistake 7: Using sauter without a preposition for spatial direction.
❌ J'ai sauté la piscine. (meaning: I jumped into the pool)
Without preposition, sauter la piscine would mean 'I skipped the pool' (skipped that part). For 'jump in,' use sauter dans.
✅ J'ai sauté dans la piscine.
I jumped into the pool.
Direct-object sauter + place is the skip meaning. To name the destination of a jump, use a preposition.
Key takeaways
Marcher = walk; also and crucially to work / function, with the everyday agreement signal ça marche !. Courir = run; irregular with double-r futur stem (je courrai); past participle couru. Sauter = jump; regular -er; transitive sauter qqch = to skip (a page, a meal, a step).
All three take avoir in compound tenses, because they describe manner of motion rather than change of location. The participles do not agree with the subject. This is the systematic difference from the maison d'être verbs (aller, venir, partir, sortir, arriver, rentrer, retourner).
The everyday idioms are where these verbs earn their keep: ça marche (sounds good), marcher dans la combine (fall for it), courir un risque (run a risk), courir partout (run around), sauter de joie (jump for joy), sauter un repas (skip a meal), sauter le pas (take the plunge). Drill these set phrases as units — they are the stitching that holds spoken French together at the A2 / B1 level.
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