Demeurer can be used with avoir or être in Le Passé Composé... and changes meaning

Hi Michael, 

This has been altered, thank you for your comment... 

Hi Tim,

Not quite sure if I have understood your question but in the 'Grammaphile's Corner' section of the lesson, it is explained that when the verb demeurer is transitive ( meaning it has an object) it uses 'avoir'  and intransitive ( without object) it uses 'être' which seems consistent to me.

Hope this helps!

Thank you, I think I am not seeing the obvious, but "j'ai demeure chez lui" and and " je suis resté chez lui" seem to mean the same thing.

I don't want to fill up the question section with a daft question, but the more I think about this it seems to me that neither version of demeurer takes a direct object ie they are both intransitive. If I'm right the grammaphile advice which is great for everything else does not work for demeurer. If you can explain why I am wrong I would be very grateful. Thank you for your patience with a struggling student."

Hi Tim,

Sorry about the delay in getting back to you...

Demeurer as your rightly point out is an odd one as it doesn't really fit into the usual transitive and intransitive category of verbs which take avoir or être.

However, it does mean two different things and use both auxiliaries depending on its meaning.

Maybe a better way of thinking about it is :

When the verb demeurer describes a state it will take 'être' and when it describes an action, it will take 'avoir'.

However, this is just a particularity of that verb and there is no need to sweat over as you will often use other verbs to describe the same meaning, rester in the case of the state of being ,

Je suis demeuré/resté bouche bée = I stayed open mouthed

and vivre/habiter for the action,

Nous avons demeuré/vécu/habité rue St Martin pendant dix ans = We lived in Rue St Martin for ten years 

You will find exceptions to all rules so this is very perceptive of you...'Vivre' is the same , intransitive but takes 'avoir' 

J'ai vécu = I have lived

Hope this helps!

 

 

That's very helpful, thank you.

Cecile's answer to Tim really helped me.  I was also confused about the opposite behaviour of demeurer relative to other verbs that  use etre or avoir depending on context.  It would be very helpful if the lesson was altered to explicitly state that this verb is odd  - all the other lessons state that if the verb is followed by a preposition (en, sur, dans, à etc) the auxillary is etre, but that is not the case for demeurer (e.g. Il a demeuré à Paris pendant quelques mois.).   Explaining that it breaks the rules, and adding the core of Cecile's explanation would avert confusion. This comment from Cecile was particularly helpful: "When the verb demeurer describes a state it will take 'être' and when it describes an action, it will take 'avoir'."

Hi all, 

The lesson is going to be adapted and your comments will be taken into consideration.

Thank you very much for pointing those out...

Bonsoir Sam, Il y a aussi plus de verbes ce qui utilisent «être» ou «avoir» et ils sont détaillés dans la leçon. J'espère que ma réponse vous aiderait. Bonne chance et bonne continuation dans vos études en français, la langue de Molière et qui a été utilisée par le monde français depuis l’époque d’Hugues Capet Ron (un locuteur non natif )

Hi Sam,

In French you will often find verbs which have different meanings. Grammatically they use different auxilliary verbs to conjugate in the past enabling us to tell their meaning apart. As Ron says French is a rich, verbose language which has many layers.

Demeurer ( with Avoir) is this case will be used to mean, to reside somewhere, but you will mostly hear the simpler habiter or vivre in spoken language .

In the other sense of staying (with Etre) you will probably mostly use "rester" in spoken language, 

e.g. Elle est restée muette devant sa réaction  rather than,  elle est demeurée muette devant sa réaction.

Hope this helps!

Bonjour Sue ! Yes, you can, although be aware that it sounds very "posh" and old-fashioned ;) Je demeure silencieux pendant qu'elle parle. En ce moment, je demeure chez des amis à Monaco. À bientôt !

It is used a lot in religious writing

Aurélie, Selon vous, alors, un(e) français(e) dirait plutôt : Je reste silencieux pendant qu'elle parle. [?] En ce moment, je suis descendu chez des amis à Monaco. [?]Merci Merci beaucoup pour votre réponse.

Bonjour Gerilyn ! Yes, in colloquial French, we'll indeed use "rester" in the first case, and for the second case, you would rather say: "En ce moment, je suis chez des amis à Monaco." or "En ce moment, je loge chez des amis à Monaco." or "En ce moment, je rends visite à des amis à Monaco." Bonne journée !

Merci Aurélie, You've answered a questions I've wondered about for a long time! Merci mille fois !