Language/French/Grammar/How-to-use-«-il-s'agit-de-»-in-French

How to use « il s'agit de » in French

Definition: Impersonal Form

In French, an impersonal sentence typically has the following characteristics:

1. The subject of the sentence is the word "il."
2. The subject does not represent a specific person or thing.

Only Used Impersonally

The phrase “il s'agit de” is uniquely impersonal in its usage.

This phrase can be followed by a noun, an infinitive verb, or, though less commonly, a clause. English speakers often try to use it with a personal subject, such as "ce livre s'agit de...," which is incorrect in French.

Examples

• Il s'agit de votre mère

It's about your mother

• Il s'agit de faire ce qui vous plaît dans la vie

You have to do what pleases you / It's about doing what pleases you in life

• Il s'agit de persuader votre sœur

It is a matter of persuading your sister / It's about persuading your sister

• Il s'agissait de vous faire voir les choses de manière plus objective

It was an attempt to make you see things more objectively / It was about making you see things more objectively

• Tout au long du déroulement de ce projet, il s'est agi de travailler de manière acharnée

Throughout the course of this project, it was about working hard

• Il ne s'agit pas que vous preniez l'entière responsabilité sur vous et votre famille

It's not about you taking full responsibility for yourself and your family

• Il ne s'agit pas de prendre du retard sur la journée

We'd better not get behind schedule today / It's not about falling behind today

Expanded Usage

"Il s'agit de" can also be used in more complex sentences and in different tenses. It's useful for summarizing the essence or main point of a discussion, story, or argument.

• Il s'agira de prendre une décision importante.

It will be about making an important decision.

Video - How to use "il s'agit de..."

In this French lesson, you will learn how to use the expression "il s'agit de" in French.

Other Chapters

Table of Contents

Nouns

• Types
• Gender
• Plural

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Determiners

• Articles
• Typical use of the definite article
• Typical use of the indefinite article
• The partitive article: du, de l', de la, des
• Use of indefinite and partitive articles after the negative forms ne... pas, ne... jamais, ne... plus, ne... guère
• Omission of the article
• Demonstrative determiners
• Possessive determiners

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Personal and impersonal pronouns

• Subject pronouns
• Object pronouns
• Stressed pronouns
• Demonstrative pronouns
• Possessive pronouns

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Adjectives

• Adjectives modifying the noun
• Adjectives which follow verbs or verbal expressions
• Adjectives with complements
• Indefinite and negative noun phrases with adjective complements
• Adjectives used as nouns
• Adjectives used as adverbs
• Masculine and feminine forms of adjectives
• Plural forms of adjectives
• Adjective agreement with nouns
• Invariable adjectives
• Compound adjectives
• Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives
• Subjunctive versus indicative in clauses dependent on a superlative adjective
• Absolute use of the superlative

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Adverbs

• Function of adverbs
• Formation of adverbs with the ending -ment
• Adjectives used as adverbs without addition of -ment
• Phrases used as adverbs
• English and French adverb formation
• Types of adverbs
• Location of adverbs

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Numbers, measurements, time and quantifiers

• Cardinal numbers
• Ordinal numbers
• Fractions
• Some differences in the use of cardinal and ordinal numbers in French and English
• Measurements and comparisons
• Dates, days, years
• Clock time
• Money
• Quantifiers

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Verb forms

• Conjugations
• Easy ways of generating some parts of the paradigms
• Changes in the stem form of some -er conjugation verbs
• Verbs whose stems end in c- or g-
• Verb paradigms

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Verb constructions

• Relations between verbs and their complements
• Intransitive constructions
• Directly transitive verbs
• Indirectly transitive verbs
• Ditransitive verbs
• The passive
• Pronominal verbs
• Impersonal verbs
• Verbs which take noun + adjective or noun + noun complements

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Verb and participle agreement

• Subject-verb agreement
• Agreement of the past participle with the subject of être
• Agreement of the past participle of verbs conjugated with avoir with a preceding direct object
• Agreement of the past participle of pronominal verbs in compound tenses

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Tense

• The present
• The past
• The future
• Other tenses indicating the time at which events occur relative to other events
• Combining tenses
• Tenses in direct and reported descriptions of events
• Tenses with si

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The subjunctive, modal verbs, exclamatives and imperatives

• The attitude of the subject to events: the subjunctive
• The use of devoir, pouvoir, savoir, falloir
• The French equivalents of the English modal verbs: 'would', 'should', 'could', 'may', 'might', 'ought to', and 'must'
• Exclamatives
• Imperatives

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The infinitive

• Introduction: what are infinitives?
• Infinitives as complements to other verbs
• Verbs which take infinitive complements without a linking preposition
• Verbs which take infinitive complements preceded by the preposition à
• Verbs which take an infinitive complement preceded by de
• Omission of objects before infinitives
• Infinitives as complements to adjectives
• Infinitives as complements to nouns
• Infinitives in subordinate clauses
• Infinitives as polite commands
• Quick-reference index to verbs taking infinitive complements

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Prepositions

• Introduction
• Prepositions listed alphabetically from à to vers
• French translations for common English prepositions

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Question formation

• Introduction
• Yes/no questions
• Information questions
• Order of object pronouns in questions involving inversion
• Order of negative particles in questions involving inversion
• Use of question words and phrases: qui?, que?, quoi?, quel?, de qui?, avec combien de? etc.
• Indirect questions

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Relative clauses

• Introduction
• Use of relative qui
• Use of relative que
• Preposition plus qui
• Use of lequel in relative clauses
• Use of dont, de qui, duquel/de laquelle/desquels/desquelles
• The use of où as a relative pronoun
• Use of relative quoi
• Free relative clauses and the use of ce qui, ce que, ce dont, ce à quoi, ce sur quoi, etc.
• Translating 'whoever', 'whatever', 'wherever', 'whenever', 'however'
• Indicative and subjunctive in relative clauses

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Negation

• Introduction
• Location of sentence negators
• Order of negators in multiple negation
• Omission of ne in sentence negation
• Order of negative elements in questions and imperatives
• ne... pas
• ne... que
• ne... aucun(e), ne... nul(le)
• ne... jamais
• ne... plus
• ne... guère
• ne... rien
• ne... personne
• ne... ni... ni
• sans used with other negators
• ne used alone

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Conjunctions and other linking constructions

• Introduction
• Coordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions
• Conjunctions sometimes confused by English speakers
• Repeated subordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions used with infinitive clauses
• après avoir/ être + past participle linking an infinitive clause to a main clause
• Past participle phrases used as linkers
• Present participles and gerunds

Other Lessons

• Difference between Nombre, Chiffre and Numéro
• tard versus en retard
• Past participles used as adjectives with the verb être
• Position of subject pronouns
• Ordinal numbers as fractions
• Relative Clause
• Intransitive verbs and auxiliary “être”
• Location of adverbs modifying sentences
• Easy future
• How to use “et” in cardinal numbers
• Well Better Worse
• Adverbs ending in —(é)ment derived from past participles
• Gender
• « d'autres » VS « des autres »
• Adjectives