He must be and he will be ...

Elle doit être malade,
She must be ill.
Frank taught me the above. This is guessing

1] Il doit avoir au moins 30 ans
He'll be at least 30.
[ I found the above in the online dictionary.]

2] Il doit être au moins 30 ans.
He must be at least 30. This is pure guessing.
I hope the second sentence is fine.
Pleas tell me.

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Permalink Reply by Frank on November 17, 2009 at 9:39pm

2) would be the same 1) in French: Il doit avoir au moins 30 ans.

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Permalink Reply by Crack1 on November 17, 2009 at 10:28pm

So you are free to use either être or avoir in this context.

However, être means 'be' and avoir means 'have'.

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Permalink Reply by Frank on November 17, 2009 at 10:45pm

When talking about how old sb is, you must use avoir in French.

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Permalink Reply by Crack1 on November 18, 2009 at 10:04am

Yes, Frank

In French you do say I have 30.

J'ai 30 ans.
Though it sounds strange, this is the French way.

It goes the same with hunger.
In French, it is j'ai faim.
The above sounds strange. However, you don't say 'j'suis faim'.

Il doit être au moins 30 ans.
Do you think the verb 'être' is fine in the above?

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Permalink Reply by Frank on November 18, 2009 at 10:10am

No. Once again, and unlike English, we use "avoir" when talking about how old somebody is.

Il doit avoir au moins 30 ans.

"être 30 ans" wouldn't make any sense in French.