Avoir l’air is a commonly used and essential French expression meaning to look, to see and to appear.
Avoir l’air
to look, seem, appear
Expression explanation
The expression avoir l’air combines the irregular verb avoir (to have) and the masculine noun l’air (the air). So, the literal translation is “to have the air of”. Avoir l’air can be followed by an adjective, noun or infinitive. The verbs sembler and paraître are synonyms for avoir l’air but they’re much more formal.
Example sentences
These first two examples uses the stucture avoir l’air + adjective.
Tu as l’air fatigué. Est-ce que tu as assez dormi ?
You look tired. Did you sleep enough?
Elle a l’air bonne, cette glace !
This ice cream looks good!
This sentence uses the stucture avoir l’air de + noun.
Marc seems like a weird guy.
This example uses the construction avoir l’air de + infinitive.
Elle a l’air de vouloir manger.
She looks like she wants to eat.
This example uses the expression avoir besoin (to need).
J’ai l’air d’avoir besoin de votre aide ?
Do I look like I need your help?
In the negation, ne…pas gets wrapped around avoir.
Il n’a pas l’air sympa, ce chien.
This dog doesn’t seem nice.
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