Skip to content

naître

to be born

verb neh-truh Less Common

Usage Note

Naître is always conjugated with être in compound tenses: je suis né(e) ('I was born'). The past participle agrees in gender and number with the subject. A common learner error is to use avoir instead. The related noun naissance means 'birth'.

Examples

"Il est né un jour de tempête en janvier."

Natural Translation

He was born on a stormy day in January.

Literal Translation

He is born one day of storm in January

Free starter pack

Building your French vocabulary?

Get the 100 most common French words as a free PDF — one email, no spam.

Explore French by topic