Avoir à
When followed by à + infinitive, avoir means "to have to":
Vous avez à répondre - You have to respond
J'ai à étudier - I have to study
Lesson on avoir
Être
Être is used in a number of expressions as a semi-auxiliary:
être à - to be in the process of
Es-tu à partir ? - Are you leaving?
être censé - to be supposed to
Je suis censé travailler - I'm supposed to work
être en passe de - to be about to (usually indicates something positive)
Je suis en passe de me marier - I'm about to get married
être en train de - to be in the process of, to be doing something right now
On est en train de manger - We're eating (right now)
être loin de - to not be about/going to
Je suis loin de te mentir - I'm not about to lie to you
être pour - to be ready/prepared/willing to
Je ne suis pas pour voler - I'm not willing to steal
être près de - to be about to, ready to
Es-tu près de partir - Are you about to leave?
être sur le point de - to be about to (positive or negative)
Il est sur le point de tomber - He's about to fall
Lesson on être
More Semi-Auxiliary Verbs
Any verb that can be followed by an infinitive can be a semi-auxiliary, including (but not limited to)
- adorer - to adore doing
- aimer - to like, love doing
- (s')arrêter de - to stop doing
- continuer à/de - to continue to do
- croire - to believe (that one) does
- demander de - to ask to
- détester - to hate doing
- dire (à qqun) de - to tell (someone) to do
- espérer - to hope to do
- falloir - to be necessary to do
- interdire (à qqun) de - to forbid (someone) to do
- penser - to be thinking of, to consider doing
- permettre - to allow to do
- promettre - to promise to do
- préférer - to prefer doing
- refuser de - to refuse to do
- risquer de - to risk doing
- souhaiter - to hope to do
- voir - to see (someone) do, to see (something) done
Word Order with Semi-Auxiliary Verbs
Semi-auxiliary verbs are used in what I refer to as dual-verb constructions - read my lesson on word order with dual-verb constructions.
Agreement with Semi-Auxiliary Verbs
In semi-auxiliary verb constructions, any direct object belongs to the infinitive, not the semi-auxiliary. Therefore, there is never any past participle agreement with the direct object.*
It's a decision that I hated to make
RIGHT: C'est une décision que j'ai détesté prendre
WRONG: "C'est une décision que j'ai détestée prendre"
Here are the books that I wanted to read
RIGHT: Voici les livres que j'ai voulu lire
WRONG: "Voici les livres que j'ai voulus lire"
*However, there may be other kinds of agreement:
- With the subject of the sentence, if the auxiliary verb of the semi-auxiliary is être (eg, nous sommes venus aider)
- With the subject of the infinitive - see agreement with French verbs of perception
Page 1 - French semi-auxiliary verbs
Page 2 - More semi-auxiliary verbs, word order, agreement
