In this edition of our French word of the week blog, we’re going to look at the verb falloir.
To hear the pronunciation of this verb in its infinitive, listen to the audio clip below:
The reason why this verb is tricky for learners is because it doesn’t really exist or have an equivalent in English. It roughly translates as to be necessary, to be needed, or must, but its structure is very different from what we’re used to.
Falloir belongs to an interesting grammatical category in French – the impersonal verb. For more information, head over to our Easy Learning French Grammar page on using impersonal verbs. Just to make things harder for you, it also has a completely irregular conjugation pattern, but you can look at the verb table for falloir to help.
In our upcoming examples, you’ll notice how falloir (as an impersonal verb) only conjugates with the subject il. You cannot and will not see it alongside any other subject pronouns, but can conjugate it in any tense. However, you will notice how other pronouns do appear in our English translations – this is often the most natural way to translate the impersonal verb to the English-speaking ear.
Let’s get into the examples:
Il faut faire… It is necessary to do; You must do; You need/have to do…
Vous n’avez pas le choix, il faut y aller dès que possible. You have no choice, you need to go there as soon as possible.
Faut-il arriver deux heures avant le départ de l’avion ? Do we need to arrive two hours before the plane leaves?
Il a fallu quitter la salle. We all had to leave the room.
Pourquoi ? Parce qu’il faut. Why? Because it’s necessary.
Il me faudra manger quelque chose. I will need to eat something.
Malheureusement, il va te falloir trouver un emploi… Unfortunately, you’re going to need to find a job…
Another important point concerns using falloir followed by que. You’ll need to conjugate the next verb in the subjunctive mood:
il faut que… + subjonctif
Il faut qu’il apprenne. He has to learn. (This comes from apprendre conjugated in the 3rd person singular present subjunctive.)
Il faut qu’elles aient oublié. They must have forgotten. (This comes from oublier conjugated in the 3rd person plural pluperfect subjunctive.)
Je ne peux pas venir, il faut que je parte à dix heures. I can’t come, I have to leave at ten o’clock.
Il faudrait qu’ils fassent les vaisselles avant de sortir. They ought to do the dishes before going out.
Il ne faut pas que tu viennes. You don’t need to come.
Well, that’s all we have for this blog. By now, you must know what you have to do next week…? You, come back to learn a new French word to bolster your vocabulary!
Written by Holly Tarbet, freelance copywriter and editor.
All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Collins, or its parent company, HarperCollins.
