falloir
French
Etymology
From Old French faloir, from an earlier falleir, from a changing of Old French faillir after its third person singular, faut, earlier falt (from Latin fallit), based off the model of valoir. Faillir derives in turn from Vulgar Latin fallīre, from Latin fallere, fallō. Compare Franco-Provençal falêr from a similar development in Old Franco-Provençal.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /fa.lwaʁ/
Audio (file) - Rhymes: -waʁ
Verb
falloir
- (impersonal) to be necessary
- Il faut que j'y aille
- I need to go.
- Faut que j'y aille.
- Got to go.
- Il a tout ce qu'il te faut.
- He has everything that you need.
- to take (time)
- 1943, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Le Petit Prince:
- Il me fallut longtemps pour comprendre d'où il venait.
- It took me a long time to understand where he came from.
- Il me fallut longtemps pour comprendre d'où il venait.
-
- (reflexive, with "en") to be missing
Conjugation
This verb is defective, only conjugated in the third-person singular. This verb is impersonal and is conjugated only in the third-person singular.
Conjugation of falloir (see also Appendix:French verbs)
| simple | compound | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| infinitive | falloir | avoir fallu | |||||
| gerund | en fallant | en ayant fallu | |||||
| present participle | fallant /fa.lɑ̃/ | ||||||
| past participle | fallu /fa.ly/ | ||||||
| person | singular | plural | |||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il | nous | vous | ils | |
| simple tenses |
present | — | — | faut /fo/ |
— | — | — |
| imperfect | — | — | fallait /fa.lɛ/ |
— | — | — | |
| past historic1 | — | — | fallut /fa.ly/ |
— | — | — | |
| future | — | — | faudra /fo.dʁa/ |
— | — | — | |
| conditional | — | — | faudrait /fo.dʁɛ/ |
— | — | — | |
| compound tenses |
present perfect | Use the present tense of avoir followed by the past participle | |||||
| pluperfect | Use the imperfect tense of avoir followed by the past participle | ||||||
| past anterior1 | Use the past historic tense of avoir followed by the past participle | ||||||
| future perfect | Use the future tense of avoir followed by the past participle | ||||||
| conditional perfect | Use the conditional tense of avoir followed by the past participle | ||||||
| subjunctive | que je (j’) | que tu | qu’il | que nous | que vous | qu’ils | |
| simple tenses |
present | — | — | faille /faj/ |
— | — | — |
| imperfect1 | — | — | fallût /fa.ly/ |
— | — | — | |
| compound tenses |
past | Use the present subjunctive tense of avoir followed by the past participle | |||||
| pluperfect1 | Use the imperfect subjunctive tense of avoir followed by the past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | tu | – | nous | vous | – | |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1literary tenses | |||||||
Derived terms
See also
References
Further reading
- “falloir” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
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