Language/French/Grammar/How-to-use-falloir
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Definitions[edit | edit source]
impersonal form[edit | edit source]
A sentence is in the impersonal form if:
- The subject is the word "il".
- The subject represents nothing and no one.
The indirect object complement[edit | edit source]
The indirect object complement (French: le complément d'objet indirect, COI) indirectly completes the verb most often through a preposition. The verb used with an COI is an indirect transitive verb.
To find the COI of the verb, it is most enough to ask questions:
- à qui ? à quoi ?
to whom? to what?
- de qui ? de quoi ?
of who? of what?
Falloir[edit | edit source]
Rule[edit | edit source]
The French verb “falloir” only exists in its impersonal form.
The verb "falloir" can be followed by:
- a noun,
- an infinitive,
- a clause (with the verb in the subjunctive)
and it can be preceded by a pronoun acting as an indirect object.
Examples[edit | edit source]
Look at the following examples:
French | Translation |
---|---|
Il faut rester | We must stay |
Il faut du monde | It takes people |
Il nous faut réfléchir | We have to think |
Il faut que nous marchions | We have to walk |
Il aura fallu trois semaines pour que vous vous décidiez | It took three weeks for you to make up your mind |
Il nous faudra revenir dans 2 semaines | We must come back in 2 weeks |
Il faudrait être certain que les cambrioleurs soient sortis de la maison | We should be sure that the burglars are out of the house |
Videos[edit | edit source]
verb FALLOIR (to be necessary/to need)[edit | edit source]
French verbs conjugated by Learn French With Alexa
Falloir versus Devoir[edit | edit source]
2 French verbs with a similar meaning but different constructions: falloir vs devoir in French.
Exercises[edit | edit source]
Inventez des conseils (Make up advice)[edit | edit source]
Write the answers to this exercise in the comments section below.
Donnez trois conseils...:
- ...à un jeune qui va passer son permis de conduire:
- Conseil 1:
- Conseil 2:
- Conseil 3:
- ...à un fumeur qui veut arrêter de fumer:
- Conseil 1:
- Conseil 2:
- Conseil 3:
- ...à une personne qui a un rendez-vous amoureux:
- Conseil 1:
- Conseil 2:
- Conseil 3:
- ...pour rester en forme:
- Conseil 1:
- Conseil 2:
- Conseil 3:
- ...pour apprendre le français:
- Conseil 1:
- Conseil 2:
- Conseil 3:
- ...pour maigrir:
- Conseil 1:
- Conseil 2:
- Conseil 3:
Other Lessons[edit | edit source]
- Benefactive me, te, se, nous, vous
- “être” and “avoir” with verbs used intransitively and transitively
- Subject Verb Agreement — Agreement quantifiers numeral nouns
- Agreement with a preceding direct object pronoun when the participle is followed by infinitives
- Impersonal Verbs
- Changes in the stem form of some —er conjugation verbs
- Use of on
- Omission of plural indefinite des after the preposition de
- Nouns which have the same spoken form but two different written forms
- Typical use of demonstrative determiners
- Choice of some time adverbs relative to the moment of speaking
- Forms of créer, nier, scier, rire, etc
- Singular or plural when a number of individuals have one item each
- Adverbs ending in —amment and —eminent derived from adjectives ending in —ant or —ent
- Order of multiple pronouns with imperatives