Le Présent: Être (to be)

Être (to be) is the single most important verb in French. It appears in nearly every paragraph of spoken French, every news headline, every French novel ever written. It is the copula that links subjects to their identities and states; it is the auxiliary that builds the passé composé for a closed list of motion verbs and for every reflexive verb in the language; it is the engine of dozens of fixed expressions you will hear before your first hour in France is over (c'est ça, c'est bon, je suis là, on est là, ça y est).

It is also wildly irregular. There is no template that predicts the forms of être. Each one has to be memorized individually, and several of them — je suis, tu es, il est — sound nothing like each other despite all meaning the same thing. This page lays out the full paradigm with phonetic detail, walks through the four core uses (identity, state, location, auxiliary), maps the idioms and fixed expressions, and addresses head-on the great trap for English speakers: when to use être and when avoir takes over.

The full paradigm

A few features stand out:

• Three different stems. Suis (1sg), es / est / êtes (2sg, 3sg, 2pl), sommes / sont (1pl, 3pl). No predictable pattern connects them — être, like English be, is a verb stitched together from the remnants of multiple Latin and Indo-European roots.
• Tu es and il est are homophones. Both are pronounced /ɛ/. The -s of tu es and the -t of il est are silent. The only thing that distinguishes them in speech is the subject pronoun. The same problem we have seen repeatedly in French — silent endings, mandatory subject pronouns.
• Vous êtes is irregular twice over. Most verbs end vous forms in -ez; vous êtes ends in -es. There is also a circumflex on ê and an obligatory liaison /z/ from vous into the vowel-initial ê: /vu‿zɛt/. Drop the liaison and you sound foreign instantly.
• Nous sommes is also irregular — most nous forms end -ons, but être ends -es. The m is phonetically present (/sɔm/), making this one of the more distinctive forms in the system.
• Sont /sɔ̃/ (3pl) contrasts minimally with ont /ɔ̃/ (3pl of avoir). The /s/ is the only difference. This minimal pair is one of the most error-prone areas for learners — see the avoir page.

The four core uses

1. Identity: who someone is

Être links a subject to a noun phrase that identifies it: a name, a profession, a nationality, a relationship.

A subtlety with professions: French traditionally uses être + bare noun, with no article: je suis professeur (I am a teacher), elle est étudiante (she is a student). English insists on the article ("I am a teacher"), but French drops it. If you want to add an article, you switch the structure to c'est + article + noun: c'est un professeur (he/she is a teacher), c'est une étudiante (she is a student). The two forms exist and are not interchangeable — see the c'est vs il est section below.

2. State: a property or condition

Être + adjective expresses a state, mood, or characteristic. The adjective agrees in gender and number with the subject.

3. Location

Être + a place phrase (with a preposition like à, dans, sur, chez, en) gives location.

For specifically going to or being at a location, French uses à with cities (je suis à Paris), en with feminine countries and continents (je suis en France, en Europe), au with masculine countries (je suis au Japon), and aux with plural countries (je suis aux États-Unis). For more, see the prepositions of place pages.

4. Auxiliary for compound tenses

Être is the auxiliary verb that builds the passé composé and other compound tenses for two categories:

• The maison d'être: a closed list of about 17 verbs of motion or change of state — aller, venir, arriver, partir, entrer, sortir, monter, descendre, rester, tomber, naître, mourir, retourner, devenir, passer, rentrer, revenir.
• All pronominal verbs (the reflexive and reciprocal verbs): se laver, se réveiller, se promener, se souvenir, etc.

When être is the auxiliary, the past participle agrees in gender and number with the subject — a major break from the avoir pattern.

For full coverage of which verbs take which auxiliary, see Auxiliary Overview and Auxiliary Choice in Compound Tenses.

C'est vs il est

This is one of the trickier distinctions in French, and it matters because c'est and il/elle est are both translated "it is" or "he/she is" in English, but they are not interchangeable.

Use c'est + article + noun (or + proper noun, or + adjective standing alone with general reference):

Use il est / elle est + adjective (specific reference to a known masculine or feminine subject):

Both are possible with profession, but with different nuance:

The general rule of thumb: il/elle est attaches an adjective or bare noun directly to a known referent; c'est introduces, characterizes, or generalizes — and always takes an article when followed by a noun.

Key idiomatic and fixed expressions

Être shows up in dozens of idioms. Here are the ones you will hear most often.

The great trap: AVOIR for sensations, not ÊTRE

This is the single most consequential error English speakers make in French. For a closed list of physical sensations and personal states, French uses avoir where English uses be. Saying je suis chaud does not mean "I am hot" — it has a sexual connotation that will embarrass everyone in the room.

The full list of sensations and states that take avoir, not être:

The pattern is the same as in Italian (ho fame, ho sete, ho 25 anni) and Spanish (tengo hambre, tengo sed, tengo 25 años). Romance languages treat these as possessions ("I have hunger") rather than states ("I am hungry"). For full coverage and the linguistic logic behind this, see avoir vs être for sensations.

The exception that proves the rule: je suis fatigué(e) (I'm tired) does take être, because fatigué is an adjective, not a sensation noun. Adjectives describing emotional or physical states (content, triste, malade, en forme) all take être. The avoir pattern is reserved for the closed list of fixed sensation nouns above.

Negation, questions, elision

Être follows the standard rules:

In casual spoken French, ne is regularly dropped: je suis pas d'accord. This is universal in everyday speech but should not appear in formal writing.

There is also a contraction worth noting: ce est never appears in French — the elision c'est is mandatory. Same for que est-ce → qu'est-ce.

Sample dialogue

Common mistakes

Mistake 1: Pronouncing tu es with a final -s sound.

Mistake 2: Forgetting the obligatory liaison in vous êtes.

Mistake 3: Using être for sensations and age.

Mistake 4: Confusing c'est and il est.

Mistake 5: Wrong auxiliary in compound tenses.

Mistake 6: Forgetting agreement with être as auxiliary.

Key takeaways

Être is the heart of the French verb system, and learning it is non-negotiable.

Three points to internalize:

1. The forms are wildly irregular and must be memorized: je suis, tu es, il est, nous sommes, vous êtes, ils sont. Special attention to vous êtes (irregular -es ending, mandatory liaison, circumflex on ê).

2. Être is the copula AND an auxiliary. As a copula it links subjects to identities, states, and locations. As an auxiliary it builds the passé composé for the maison d'être verbs and all reflexives — and triggers participle agreement with the subject.

3. Sensations and age use avoir, not être. J'ai faim, j'ai 25 ans, j'ai chaud. This is the largest single transfer error English speakers make, and the consequences range from awkward (je suis 25 ans sounds like you're confused) to embarrassing (je suis chaud is sexual).

Once être is solid, study avoir in parallel — the two verbs work as a pair throughout the French verb system, and the compound tenses cannot be built without both.