Avoir is the general French verb for "to have," but if you’re talking about something that you physically have, tenir might be the better verb to use. The simplest meaning of tenir is "to hold." This is the way the singer Corneille uses it in one of our most popular music videos, Comme un fils (Like a Son):

Tiens ma tête quand elle fait plus de sens.

Hold my head when it no longer makes sense.

Caption 28, Corneille - Comme un fils

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When it’s not referring to something that you’re holding in your hand, tenir can also be used for something that you keep, maintain, or manage, such as a restaurant:          

Aller chez Gilles Spannagel qui tient Le Cruchon,

To go visit Gilles Spannagel who owns Le Cruchon [The Little Jug],

qui est le petit restaurant...

which is the little restaurant...

Caption 23, Strasbourg - Les passants

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Or it can refer to something that is attached to something else, like needles on a Christmas tree:

Des épines qui tiennent plus longtemps...

Needles that stay on longer...

Caption 7, TV Tours - Une seconde vie pour vos sapins de Noël?

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Tenir also applies to situations in which you are compelled to do something, in the expressions tenir à and être tenu(e) de:

Je tiens à préciser que la Bretagne a son charme aussi.

I have to mention that Brittany has its charms too.

Caption 13, Fanny et Corrine - Leurs origines

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Mais ils sont tenus d'avoir... un certificat de capacité.

But they are required to have... a certificate of competency.

Caption 48, TV Sud - Fête de la Tortue 2012

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Tenir à can also mean "to be fond of," "to be attached to," or "to care about":

Elle tient à son emploi.

She is fond of her job. 

And when you make tenir reflexive (se tenir), it means "to stand," "remain," or "behave." Can you imagine walking into someone’s house and seeing a llama standing in the living room?

C'est bien un lama qui se tient fièrement en plein milieu d'un salon.

That's really a llama proudly standing in the middle of a living room.

Caption 2, Angers 7 - Un lama en plein appartement

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Tiens-toi tranquille, hein sinon!

Hold still, OK, or else!

Caption 5, Il était une fois: les Explorateurs - 10. Amerigo Vespucci

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Les enfants se tiennent bien.

The children are behaving themselves. 

You can also use tiens, the singular imperative form of tenir, for the interjection "look" (or more literally, "behold"):

Tiens, ça doit être bon, ça!

Look, this should be good!

Caption 24, Il était une fois: les Explorateurs - 10. Amerigo Vespucci

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The verb détenir is related to tenir and is often translated the same way, though it has the specific connotation of "to possess" or even "detain":

...qui autorise des gens à détenir des animaux, des tortues chez eux.

...which allows some people to keep animals, turtles, at home.

Caption 47, TV Sud - Fête de la Tortue 2012

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Crois-moi, tu détiens là, la base de toute connaissance.

Believe me, you hold there the basis of all knowledge.

Caption 13, Il était une fois: l’Homme - 6. Le siècle de Périclès

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Even if you don’t hold the basis of all knowledge, with this lesson you should hold everything you need to make good use of the verb tenir. You can check out the WordReference page on the verb for even more uses. So soyez sûr de retenir le verbe tenir (be sure to hold onto the verb tenir)! 

The normal word order in both French and English is "subject + verb," as in il dit (he says). But in certain situations, such as asking questions and using quotations, it is very common in French to switch the order to "verb + subject": dit-il. This is common in English as well: "They are going to the concert" versus "Are they going to the concert?" This switch from "subject + verb" to "verb + subject" is known as inversion.

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In French, most instances of inversion occur between pronouns and verbs. When a pronoun and its verb are inverted, the two must be joined with a hyphen:

Eh bien, mon garçon, dis-moi, que sais-tu?

Well, my boy, tell me, what do you know?

Caption 11, Il était une fois... l’Homme - 6. Le siècle de Périclès - Part 5

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"Non, je ne veux pas sortir avec toi", répond-elle.

"No, I don’t want to go out with you," she responds.

When inverting a third-person pronoun (il, elle, on, ils, elles) and verb, you must pronounce the two with a liaison (see our lesson on liaison here). Thus we have "dit-Til," "répond-Telle," "est-Til," and so on.

When a third-person singular verb does not end in a t or d, you must insert a -t- between the inverted pronoun and verb. This inserted -t- does not have any meaning by itself; its sole purpose is to create the liaison:

A-t-il peur du noir?

Is he afraid of the dark?

Combien d'années, combien de siècles faudra-t-il,

How many years, how many centuries will be needed

avant que ne se retrouvent pareilles constellations?

before such constellations can be found again?

Captions 3-4, Il était une fois... l’Homme - 6. Le siècle de Périclès - Part 6

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For third-person plural verbs, the final t (which is usually silent) is pronounced in inversion:

ils donnent ("they give," pronounced like il donne)

donnent-ils (pronounced "donne-Tils")

In other words, all inverted third-person pronouns must be preceded by a t sound.

The first-person pronoun je is rarely inverted, except in interrogative constructions such as puis-je... (may I...), dois-je... (must I...), and suis-je... (am I...).

Although not as frequently as pronouns, nouns can also be inverted with their verbs, as the above example demonstrates (se retrouvent pareilles constellations). In this case, a hyphen is not required:

"Non, je ne veux pas sortir avec toi", répond Christine.

"No, I don’t want to go out with you," Christine responds.

A common way to ask questions in French is to use a "double subject," in which a noun is followed by an inverted verb and pronoun. This can be seen in the title of the video Alsace 20 - Pourquoi le bio est-il plus cher? (Why is organic more expensive?) and in this caption:

L'art, est-il moins nécessaire que la science?

Is art less necessary than science?

Caption 3, Micro-Trottoirs - Art ou science?

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Although the inversion method is a bit more concise, these two questions could easily be rephrased with est-ce que:

Pourquoi est-ce que le bio est plus cher?

Est-ce que l’art est moins nécessaire que la science?

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To learn more about asking questions in French, including some notes on inversion, see this page. 

Voilà is a very common word in French, and depending on the context, it can take a number of different meanings, the most general of which is "there/here it is." In grammatical terms, voilà is categorized as a presentative, or a word that is used to introduce something. Voilà comes from the imperative phrase vois là (see there), which makes the presentative nature of the word even more apparent. At its most basic, voilà is used to present a specific object or person

Donc voilà mon super falafel, avec de l'aubergine grillée...

So here is my super falafel, with grilled eggplant...

Caption 9, Mon Lieu Préféré - Rue des Rosiers

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Ah! Ben tiens, voilà Socrate.

Oh! Well look, here comes Socrates.

Caption 9, Il était une fois: l’Homme - 6. Le siècle de Périclès

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In these two examples, we see how voilà can be used to direct our attention to both an object (Caroline's "super falafel") and a person (Socrates). But when voilà isn't literally presenting us with something, it is often used as a way of emphasizing a statement:

La poésie c'est comme l'amour:

Poetry is like love:

c'est le plus court chemin entre deux êtres. Voilà.

it's the shortest path between two people. There.

Caption 39, Marché de la Poésie - Des poètes en tout genre

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In a sense, you could say that voilà is "presenting" us here with the metaphor on poetry that precedes it. But on a slightly less articulate note, when voilà is used for emphasis, it often acts as a sort of filler word, used when someone wants to end one topic and move on to another:

Euh... voilà. Après, l'inspiration, elle...

Uh... there you are. Well, inspiration, it...

elle vient de plein de sources diverses et variées.

it comes from a lot of different and varied sources.

Caption 48, Niko de La Faye - "Visages"

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You can also use voilà to affirm another person's statement:

Voilà, vous pouvez même voir le petit bateau en photo, euh, ici.

That's right, you can even see the little boat in the photo, uh, here.

Caption 50, Arles - Le marché d'Arles

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Or you can use it to express a period of time:

Voilà près de sept ans que les professionnels du bois attendaient ça.

For nearly seven years, the lumber business has been waiting for this.

Caption 5, Le Journal - Firewood

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Because voilà can be used in so many different situations, it is often tricky to translate ("there," "here," "there you go," "there you have it," "that's it," "there you are," and so on). And since no English word can really capture voilà's breadth of meaning, sometimes it's best not to translate it at all. In fact, the difficulty of translating voilà might be why it's become an (often humorous) English exclamation as well.

Now let's take a look at voilà's sister word, voici (from vois ici, "see here"). Like voilà, voici is also a presentative, but whereas voilà can either mean "there it is" or "here it is," voici usually just means "here it is." And unlike voilà, voici isn't used for emphatic or filler purposes, but almost exclusively for introducing or presenting a specific person or thing:

Nous voici devant une des quatre Statues de la Liberté

Here we are in front of one of the four Statues of Liberty

que l'on peut trouver dans la ville de Paris.

that you can find in the city of Paris.

Captions 24-25, Voyage dans Paris - Jardin du Luxembourg

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You can get a better sense of the difference between voici and voilà when they are both used in the same sentence:

Voici ma maison et voilà celle de mon ami.

Here is my house and there is my friend's.

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As you can see, voilà is used to point out something at a distance, whereas voici indicates something close by. The difference between voici and voilà is similar to the difference between ceci (this) and cela (that). In fact, another way of translating the sentence above would be, "this is my house and that is my friend's."

You've probably heard voilà used in English before, but voici hasn't really managed to make the crossover. Besides the fact that voilà is often hard to translate (voici is much more straightforward), this could also be because voilà often acts as a standalone phrase (Voilà!), whereas voici generally doesn't. But don't underestimate a good voici when speaking French: if you want people to notice something that's right in front of them, it's the word to use!