Demeurer as neither "to reside" nor as verbe d'état?

Question

In the case where demeurer is used to mean to physically remain in a location, does it take avoir or être? This usage doesn't seem to be a verbe d'état, because a location isn't really a state or an attribute... or is it?Larousse uses the example « La voiture est demurée au garage ». In this case, is au garage a state? Is demeurer being used as a verb of state?Grevisse (§814 b 4°) makes it even more fun, with « [...] en France, où j'ai demeuré quelque temps » and then « je n'étais pas [...] demeuré à Paris ». Why use avoir with the first, but être with the second?Thanks for taking the time to shed some light on this!

Accepted Answer

Your last example suggests to me there is a slight error in the lesson:

When demeurer means to remain or live somewhere it takes avoir.

In your example, Proust says that he "had not remained long in Paris", and I think this takes être as in the other examples that translate as "remain".

I was going to suggest that "remain" be changed to "stay", but unfortunately "stay" can mean either "reside" or "remain" depending on the context.

Answer

Thanks, Alan.So it seems that for demeurer = habiter quelque part, y résider, it uses auxiliary avoir -- but for all other uses it takes auxiliary être, would you agree?

Answer

It can also mean "to spend some time doing something", which is also usually conjugated with avoir.

Answer

I found your reply so informative ,  I just wanted to inject that it seems that “demeurer” in the affirmative with avoir” when it means “to stay (but not « to live ») to express its completeness, but in the negative “être” is used to stress the verb’s non-existence and incompleteness .

Answer

Salut. It seems to me that demeurer , when used to mean “to remain,” as opposed to “to live,” does take avoir in the affirmative (Il a demeurer à Marseille), but être in the negative (Mais il n’est pas demeuré à Paris [quand il est revenu chez nous .]).  To recapitulate:  Elle a demeuré (résidé) chez lui.  Elle a demeuré (restée) donc à Marseille.  -vs.-  Elle n’a pas demeuré chez lui.  Donc, elle n’est pas demeurée à Marseille.