You may be wondering by now what all these être verbs have in common that makes them different. (Unfortunately the answer is rather unsatisfactory.)

They are all verbs which express either:

1)
some form of movement, such as 'aller', 'arriver', 'monter', etc., or

2)
a change of state, such as 'naître', 'mourir' and 'devenir'.

They are also verbs that:

1)
do not take a direct object (they are 'intransitive').

But beware! Not all verbs expressing movement or a change of state take être. And not all intransitive verbs take être. Only those listed on the previous page take être.

People have devised various ways of remembering être verbs.

1. A visual device: la maison d'être

2. A mnemonic device: Mrs R.D. Vandertrampp

3. Think of them as pairs.