Être (to be) · All tenses

Être is the auxiliary for about 17 motion/state verbs and ALL reflexive verbs (aller, venir, partir, sortir, arriver, monter, descendre, naître, mourir, rester, tomber, devenir, retourner, entrer, rentrer, passer, revenir + all 'se' verbs). Avoir is the auxiliary for every other verb. The être verbs are often called 'the house of être' because they describe motion in and out of a metaphorical house (enter, exit, climb, descend, etc.).

Être's present comes directly from Latin 'esse' (to be), which had its own irregular paradigm (sum, es, est, sumus, estis, sunt). The French 'vous êtes' preserves the older form rather than adopting the regular -ez ending. Compare 'vous dites' (dire) and 'vous faites' (faire) — three of the very few -ez exceptions in French.

Use avoir (not être!) as the auxiliary + the past participle 'été': j'ai été, tu as été, il/elle/on a été, nous avons été, vous avez été, ils/elles ont été. The participle 'été' never changes form — no agreement with the subject because the auxiliary is avoir, not être.

It's a French quirk inherited from Latin. Most languages would expect 'I have been' to use the verb 'to be' as the auxiliary, but French settled on avoir for être's compound tenses. The same goes for avoir itself (j'ai eu = I have had). Memorise both: 'J'AI ÉTÉ' and 'J'AI EU' — never 'je suis été' or 'je suis eu'.

Both translate to 'j'ai été' in the passé composé. French doesn't distinguish 'I was' (point past) from 'I have been' (recent perfect) as cleanly as English does. The choice between passé composé ('j'ai été à Paris') and imparfait ('j'étais à Paris') matters more — passé composé describes a completed visit; imparfait describes an ongoing past state ('I was in Paris when…').

The imparfait of être is: j'étais, tu étais, il/elle/on était, nous étions, vous étiez, ils/elles étaient. The stem 'ét-' is irregular — every other French verb forms its imparfait stem by dropping -ons from the nous form of the present, but être's nous form 'sommes' would yield a nonsensical 'somm-'. Être is the only verb with a fully irregular imparfait stem.

Use 'j'étais' for ongoing past states without a clear endpoint or for descriptions: 'j'étais fatigué quand tu m'as appelé' (I was tired when you called me — ongoing state). Use 'j'ai été' for a completed past state with a clear boundary: 'j'ai été fatigué pendant trois jours' (I was tired for three days — bounded period). Background vs foreground.

Most French imparfait stems come from the nous form of the present (nous parlons → je parlais). Être's nous form 'sommes' doesn't yield a usable stem, so French preserved an older Latin-derived stem 'ét-' that descended from 'eram' (Latin imperfect of esse). This is the only fully irregular imparfait stem in French — every other verb is predictable from its nous form.

The subjonctif présent of être is: que je sois, que tu sois, qu'il/elle/on soit, que nous soyons, que vous soyez, qu'ils/elles soient. Singular forms use 'soi-'; nous/vous use 'soy-' (with a 'y' that triggers the natural diphthong before -ons/-ez). Both stems are irregular and don't derive from any other être form.

Use it after triggers of necessity, will, doubt, emotion, or hypothesis: 'il faut que je sois là' (I need to be there), 'je veux qu'il soit heureux' (I want him to be happy), 'bien que tu sois fatigué' (although you are tired), 'avant que nous soyons en retard' (before we are late). The subjonctif is one of French's most-used moods — far more common than in English.

The subjonctif of être collapses je and tu into the same form ('sois'). This is unusual — most French verbs distinguish them. It happened because the older Latin subjunctive 'sim' (I be) and 'sis' (you be) both reduced to monosyllables that converged in Old French. The same collapse affects every irregular subjonctif of être: il soit / je sois share no shared stem in modern usage.

The futur of être uses the irregular stem 'ser-': je serai, tu seras, il/elle/on sera, nous serons, vous serez, ils/elles seront. The standard French future endings (-ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez, -ont) attach to 'ser-' rather than the infinitive 'être'. This same stem is used for the conditionnel (je serais).

Être's futur stem is fully irregular and comes from a different Latin root — 'sedere' (to sit, to be settled) rather than 'esse' (to be). Old French speakers used both verbs for 'to be' depending on whether the meaning leaned toward identity (esse → suis, es, est) or settled state (sedere → serai, serais). Modern French inherited the present from esse and the futur/conditionnel from sedere. A few other verbs have similar mixed-root paradigms — most famously aller (vais → ire → irai).

Both express future being. 'Je serai' (futur simple) feels slightly more formal, more committed, or further in time. 'Je vais être' (futur proche, going-to future) is more conversational and more common for near-term plans. The futur simple also expresses conjecture: 'il sera fatigué' = 'he must be tired' (speculation about a likely present state) — a meaning the futur proche cannot carry.

The conditionnel présent of être is: je serais, tu serais, il/elle/on serait, nous serions, vous seriez, ils/elles seraient. The same irregular stem 'ser-' used in the futur, plus the imperfect endings (-ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient). Once you know the futur, the conditionnel comes for free.

'Je serai' (futur) = I WILL be (commitment to future fact). 'Je serais' (conditionnel) = I WOULD be (hypothetical, polite, or conditional). Pronounced almost identically in spoken French — the difference is one letter that matters enormously in meaning. The conditionnel is what powers 'si j'avais...' (if I had...) hypotheticals: 'Si j'avais le temps, je serais là' (If I had time, I would be there).

Use it for: 1) Hypothetical statements with 'si + imparfait' ('si j'étais riche, je serais heureux' — if I were rich, I'd be happy), 2) Polite requests or suggestions ('ce serait gentil' — that would be nice), 3) Reported future-in-past ('il a dit qu'il serait là' — he said he would be there), 4) Hedged opinions ('il serait malade selon ma mère' — he might be sick according to my mother). The conditionnel is one of French's most-used moods for politeness.