Learn how to use To Need in French. Avoir besoin de means “To need” in English. It’s one of the many common French expressions with the verb Avoir – To have.
This is how you express need in French. The sentence can be build in a few different ways.
Avoir is an irregular verb but it’s also one of the most used verbs in French. You must know it by heart.
Avoir – Present tense:
J’ai – I have
Tu as – You have
Il a – He has
Elle a – She has
On a – We have
Nous avons – We have
Vous avez – You have
Ils-Elles ont – They have
But what about Avoir besoin de?
The word besoin is never conjugated. The only word that changes a little bit, besides avoir, is DE. DE will change to D’ if the following word starts with a vowel or a silent H. If we look at the word un besoin alone, it’s a noun that means a need.
AVOIR (conjugated) + BESOIN + DE or D’
Avoir besoin de – Present tense:
J’ai besoin de/d’ – I need
Tu as besoin de/d’ – You need
Il a besoin de/d’ – He needs
Elle a besoin de/d’ – She needs
On a besoin de/d’ – We need
Nous avons besoin de/d’ – We need
Vous avez besoin de/d’ – You need
Ils-Elles ont besoin de/d’ – They need
Building a sentence with avoir besoin de is fairly easy, the only thing that you should know is that it can be followed by an infinitive verb or by a noun.
Let’s see a few examples when avoir besoin de is followed by an infinitive verb:
J’ai besoin de faire des courses
I need to go grocery shopping
Tu as besoin de dormir
You need to sleep
Il a besoin de travailler plus
He needs to work work
Elle a besoin d’apprendre l’espagnol
She needs to learn Spanish
On a besoin de ranger la cuisine
We need to tidy up the kitchen
Nous avons besoin de manger plus de légumes
We need to eat more vegetables
Vous avez besoin de manger quelque chose
You need to eat something
Ils ont besoin d’aller aux toilettes
They need to go to the bathroom
Elles ont besoin de se reposer
They need to rest
When avoir besoin de is in a negative sentence, the first part of the negation will be before the verb avoir, the second part will be after the verb avoir.
Remember that French negation has many forms: ne … pas, ne … plus, ne … jamais, …
Lets’ see the sentences from above turned into negative sentences with NE … PAS.
Je n’ai pas besoin de faire des courses
I don’t need to go grocery shopping
Tu n’as pas besoin de dormir
You don’t need to sleep
Il n’a pas besoin de travailler plus
He doesn’t need to work work
Elle n’a pas besoin d’apprendre l’espagnol
She doesn’t need to learn Spanish
On n’a pas besoin de ranger la cuisine
We don’t need to tidy up the kitchen
Nous n’avons pas besoin de manger plus de légumes
We don’t need to eat more vegetables
Vous n’avez pas besoin de manger quelque chose
You don’t need to eat something
Ils n’ont pas besoin d’aller aux toilettes
They don’t need to go to the bathroom
Elles n’ont pas besoin de se reposer
They don’t need to rest
Avoir besoin de can also be followed by an article and a noun, as to to need something.
J’ai besoin d’une feuille de papier
I need a piece of paper
Tu as besoin de vacances
I need vacation
Il a besoin de repos
He needs rest
Elle a besoin d’un nouveau sac à main
She needs a new purse
You can ask a question including avoir besoin de in different ways:
If we look at the question, what do you need?
The casual question: Tu as besoin de quoi ?
With Qu’est-ce que: De quoi est-ce que tu as besoin ?
With the inversion: De quoi as-tu besoin ? Which one to use? Use the first or the second one, the third one with the inversion is used more in formal conversation, writing.
6 Responses
Dylane
I received an email from you but no PDF for Avoid Besoin de
I sent it to you a couple of hours ago 🙂
Hi Dylan! I follow you on Instagram which led me to your YouTube and now (a Google search led me to) your website and I must say I LOVE your work! Always so clear/thorough/well-explained. I will be claiming that I taught myself to speak French but really you deserve a LOT of credit! Merci beaucoup!
Lauren thank you so much for your comment, this is so nice to know that you are learning with my content 😍 And you can totally be proud to teaching yourself French. learning a language is definitely not easy 🙂
I just love how you take your time to teach the french
I have been able to learn a lot Please can I get the PDF of the complete french grammar course.thank you
Thank you Gloria 🙂 You can get the PDF here on my website 🙂