Is the French verb "lever" conjugated with "avoir" or "être"?

How do you conjugate the verb lever in French? Is it with the auxiliary avoir or être?

The answer is both auxiliaries (avoir and être).

It just depends on how you use the verb lever.

To answer this question and to be as clear as possible, first I will dig a bit deeper into the French grammar and explain to you (or maybe just refresh your memory on) some words coming from the grammatical jargon.

This will be useful as it will help you understand the French grammar better and you’ll be able to choose between être and avoir for many (if not all) other verbs. Then I’ll answer your question.

 1. What is an auxiliary?

First of all, an auxiliary is a type of verb but not a verb used to transcribe an action. It is a “helping verb”. It is used in forming the tenses, moods, and voices of other verbs. It doesn’t actually add any semantic content.

In other words, it doesn’t add any meaning to your sentence.

In English, auxiliary verbs are be, do, and have ; the modal auxiliaries are can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, and would. An example is the auxiliary verb have in the sentence I have finished my dinner.

Here, the main verb is finish, and the auxiliary have helps to express the perfect aspect (the past tense). But let’s not digress and let’s come back to French grammar.[click to continue reading...]