Avoir Besoin — Meaning, Pronunciation, and Examples in French

Level: A2 (Upper Beginner)

🎧 Audio by Marie Assel Cambier, a native speaker & professional voice artist from France

See also:
👉 Avoir (to have) Word of the Day »
👉 Avoir conjugation chart updated with audio »
👉 Avoir peur (to be afraid) Word of the Day »

The French Word of the Day is avoir besoin, meaning “to need.” This extremely common and useful expression follows specific grammatical structures, and in the lesson below you’ll see exactly how it works through clear, practical examples.

✅ Meaning
✅ Pronunciation
✅ Example sentences
✅ Related Words & Expressions

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📘 Avoir besoin meaning

Avoir besoin means “to need” in French and is used to express necessity, requirement, or lack. It is always followed by de before a noun or verb. You can use it for physical needs, practical needs, emotional needs, or things you require to do something.

✅ “J’ai besoin de dormir.” → I need to sleep.
✅ “Elle a besoin d’aide.” → She needs help.

🎧 Avoir besoin pronunciation

👉 The pronunciation of “avoir besoin” is /a.vwaʁ bə.zwɛ̃/ — roughly “ah-VWAR buh-ZWEN.”

📝 French and English example sentences

Avoir besoin – to need

1. Avoir besoin de + noun

In the example below, avoir besoin de is followed by a noun. Notice that de becomes d’ when the noun begins with a vowel.

J’ai besoin d‘un café.
I need a coffee.

2. Avoir besoin de + infinitive + noun

In the following examples, avoir besoin de is used with both an infinitive and a noun.

J’ai besoin de boire un café.
I need to drink a coffee.

3. Avoir besoin de + infinitive

Avoir besoin can also be followed by an infinitive on its own, without a noun.

Vous avez besoin de dormir.
You need to sleep.

⚠️ Caution: Beginners often forget the “de” after besoin. For example:

✅ Vous avez besoin de dormir. (correct)
❌ Vous avez besoin dormir. (wrong)

❓ Avoir besoin vs devoir

Many learners wonder if avoir besoin and devoir mean the same thing. The short answer is: they can overlap in meaning, but they’re not true synonyms. Avoir besoin expresses a need — something useful, necessary, or personally important.

Devoir, on the other hand, carries a stronger sense of duty or obligation, often something imposed from outside rather than chosen.

Examples:
✅ J’ai besoin de travailler. → I need to work.
✅ Je dois travailler. → I have to work.

👉 See my devoir Word of the Day lesson and devoir conjugation charts (with audio) »

📊 Avoir besoin in different tenses

The next two examples show how to use avoir besoin de in the futur proche and the futur simple, the two main future tenses in French.

Tu vas avoir besoin de manger. You’re going to need to eat.
Tu auras besoin de manger. You’re going to need to eat.

In the passé composé, this same sentence looks like this:

Tu as eu besoin de manger.
You needed to eat.

This sentence can also be written using the imperfect tense:

Tu avais besoin de manger.
You needed to eat.

🙏 Besoin as a noun

Besoin is a noun and does not necessarily have to be used in the expression avoir besoin de.

La famille est dans le besoin.
The family is needy (poor).

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🔍 Related expressions with avoir besoin

There are two very common French expressions that are closely related to avoir besoin: il me faut and avoir envie de.

1. Il me faut comes from the impersonal expression il faut (it is necessary). When you add a pronoun, it becomes personal: Il me faut + noun = I need + noun

2. Avoir envie de has a softer meaning. Instead of expressing necessity, it means to want or to feel like: Avoir envie de + noun/infinitive = to want / to feel like

Examples
✅ Il me faut une fourchette. → I need a fork.
✅ J’ai envie d’un café. → I want a coffee.

👉 See il faut lesson »
👉 See avoir envie lesson »

🚀 Continue growing your French vocabulary!

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👉 French adverbs overview »
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