Arriving at a French Verb
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The French verb arriver usually means "to arrive" or "to happen." It’s a regular -er verb that requires être as its auxiliary verb in compound tenses and moods.
Arriver
1) Generally speaking, arriver is equivalent to "to arrive."
Par exemple…
| Quand vas-tu arriver ? | When are you going to arrive? | |
| Il est déjà arrivé. | He has already arrived. |
2) It can also mean "to be on one’s way"
Par exemple…
| Attends, j’arrive ! | Wait, I’m on my way! | |
| Tiens, il arrive. | Look, he’s here. |
Lesson: J’arrive !
3) And "to happen"
Par exemple…
| Qu’est-ce qui arrive ? | What’s happening? | |
| Qu’est-ce qui t’est arrivé ? | What happened to you? |
Arriver à
1) with a noun = to reach, get to (literally and figuratively)
Par exemple…
| On arrivera au sommet dans une heure. | We’ll reach the top in an hour. | |
| Comment êtes-vous arrivé à ce résultat ? | How did you get this result? |
2) with an infinitive = to manage to, succeed in
Par exemple…
| Je suis enfin arrivé à lui parler. | I finally managed to talk to him. | |
| Il n’arrive pas à obtenir le permis. | He didn’t succeed in getting the permit. |
Related lessons
- Arriver conjugations
- Arriver expressions
- Prepositions
- Auxiliary verbs
- Compound tenses and moods
- Introduction to verbs
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Verb conjugation tables for more than 1,600 French verbs in all the simple and compound tenses and moods.
In English, we say that the vowels are “a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y.” The last couple of words hint at one of the keys to understanding pronunciation: a vowel is not so much a letter as the sound represented by a letter or combination of letters.