# FR: il te faut aller / il faut que tu ailles



## chifladoporlosidiomas

Good evening!
I would like to know how to make my French sound more "beautiful" for my upcoming concours. My teacher tells me that I should avoid the subjunctive (i.e. Il te faut aller au marché vs. Il faut que tu ailles au marché). [ ... ] In the concours I will be judged on how I express myself in French.


----------



## itka

> My teacher tells me that I should avoid the  subjunctive (i.e. Il te faut aller au marché vs. Il faut que tu ailles  au marché) […].


I'm not sure I understand very well what you mean (or what meant your teacher !)
"Not to use the subjunctive" ? I hope he didn't advise you to use _"il te faut aller au marché"_ instead of _"il faut que tu ailles au marché" _?
[…]
I completely disagree with these statements. It would be very weird to say : _"Il me faut aller au marché"_ ! ... […]
Are you sure you understood well what your teacher said ?


----------



## Nicomon

I agree entirely with itka (bonjour ). _Il te/me faut aller au marché_ doesn't sound natural at all - by this I mean that it's not "spontaneous".

Now if the idea is to avoid the subjunctive - for some unknown reason - you can always change the verb.

_Il faut que tu ailles_ can become (simply): _*Tu dois aller.*_


----------



## Nevermore

As people have said above, this seems a very odd suggestion indeed, not just because the examples you gave are rather unnatural but also because the subjunctive can, in my opinion, give rise to some very beautiful French. I suspect the reason your teacher suggests you avoid it is that it is more difficult to conjugate, which leads on to my question - what level is the _concours_ at?


----------



## Meyer Wolfsheim

I am no native, but I think you shouldn't avoid the subjunctive which can give lend to awkward constructions which have already been pointed out by natives.  But if you haven't mastered the subjunctive conjugations completely, then if you can you might want to use it sparingly (if possible).  Some situations it's obligatory so don't get lazy on it.  Personally, I will use the subjunctive as much as possible when appropriate (really due to Spanish).  

As you should, be simple when possible and say what you know how to say.  If you go for constructions which you aren't familiar with you're bound to trip up.


----------



## WordRef1

itka said:


> I completely disagree with these statements. It would be very weird to say : _"Il me faut aller au marché"_ ! ...


Combien d'année as-tu ? Une fois, (je suis presque certain que) j'aie lu que la première forme « il te faut » est plus soutenu en francais. Peut-être, ça c'est d'autre fois, non ?


----------



## LV4-26

I'm not unfamiliar with wordings like "_il me/te faut_ + Infinitive" and I wouldn't say it sounds unnatural. However, I'm positive, as has been said, that _"il faut que je/tu _+ subj." is much more idiomatic.

Plus, those two aren't exactly synonymous.
_Il faut que _is more like _you've got to_ while _il te faut_ is closer to _you need to_ or _you want to_ (in its BE "need" sense).

Interestingly enough, _il te faut_ seems to sound more natural in the future ===>
_Il te faudra aller au marché._
in sentences like
_Si tu veux manger un poulet à midi, il te faudra d'abord aller au marché, puis trouver le marchand de volailles, puis ....._
Incidentally, the above example emphasizes its "_you'll need to_" sense.

Again, let me insist that there's absolutely nothing wrong with the (present) subjunctive. And it isn't that hard to conjugate, at least if you use regular 1st or 3d group verbs.
_Tu manges ==> Il faut que tu manges._

If still in doubt, I would recommend Nicomon's excellent suggestion ==> 
_Tu dois aller._

PS : I was wondering whether your teacher is from the South-West. "Il te faut" is more common there. ==>
"Il te faut la pile' = "you want the flashlight" (as it's very dark there).
[don't use "pile" in this sense too far up North or you won't be understood ]


----------



## Stephane_G

I'm don't agree your teacher. I suggest you to have a look on this link Subjonctif — Wikipédia and I can assure you that the examples this article gives are used in conversation. I can tell you too that is the correct way of speaking French.
The way you wrote "Il te faut aller au marché" is usefull if you want to make some humor like caricaturing a noble or if you want to speak french like in the "middle age" " Fi chevalier, il me faut aller au chateau pour voir séant ma mie"


----------



## chifladoporlosidiomas

Je vous remercie tous ! Quoique je n'avais pas la chance de voir vos commentaires, j'ai fait exactement ce que vous m'avez conseillé. Il me semblait bien bizzare ne pas employer le subjonctive et j'avais beau y essayer mais il m'était si difficile. Or je sais que je ne dois pas me fier ce à quoi mon prof (il n'est vraiment pas mon prof, mais le seul prof du français dans mon école) dit puisqu'il ne parle aucunement bien le français. Merci !

(i have no french this year. but i took two years so far (french 3 and 4), too complicated to explain why i  took those classes)


----------



## hamedato

I saw this sentence on the dictionary of this website: "Il nous faut appréhender la réalité de la vie." So, I think maybe it's not common but natural, no.
But I came across yet this one also there: il faudra te décider.

Now my question is this: Does "il faudra te décider" means "il te faudra décider"? Like the construction we have discussed above.
Merci!


----------



## Maître Capello

No, it is quite different.

_Il faudra *te* décider_ (pronominal verb _se décider_) = _Tu devras *te* décider_ → You will have to make up your mind.
_Il *te* faudra décider_ (regular verb _décider_) = _Tu devras décider_ → You will have to decide.


----------



## hamedato

I'm still confused about this "falloir"! I know "falloir" has to be preceded by the pronouns but could someone please put me out of my misery and tell me why it says:
Il a des manières de sauvage, il faudrait le civiliser !

and why not: "il le faudrait civiliser"

Merci beaucoup


----------



## olivier68

*In that single example*, I think both are possible (without any change in the meaning) :

"Il le faudra civiliser"
"Il faudra le civiliser"

In this example the "le" is a direct object, to be distinguished from the "te" used in Capello"s examples:

"Il faudra te décider"  = il faudra que tu te décides ("te/tu" is a subject)
"Il te faudra décider" = C'est "à  toi" qu'il reviendra de décider (indirect object)

It is possible to combine both formulations:

"Il te le faudra décider" or "Il te le faudra civiliser" : correct


----------



## Oddmania

I have a hard imagining anyone say "Il le faudrait civiliser". I think you might be confusing several different concepts, Hamedato.


hamedato said:


> I know "falloir" has to be preceded by the pronouns...


It doesn't _have _to. *Il faut...* means "it is necessary to...". *Il me/te/lui/etc. faut...* means "I/You/He/etc. must...". The indirect pronoun makes the statement personal. It pretty much amounts to changing "It is required to..." into "I/You/He is required to...".

The sentence "Il faudrait le civiliser" is completely different. The pronoun "le" is *direct*. Literally, "*Il faudrait le civiliser.*" *↔ It would be well-advised to civilize him*. In other words, "_That man should be taught some manners!_".

In Old French, it was common to put direct pronouns before the very first verb when the sentence had several verbs in a row. So, instead of "Je vais *le *faire" (_I'm going to do it_), you might come across "Je *le *vais faire" in old texts. "Il le faudrait civiliser" would follow the same pattern, but that would be a very archaic turn of phrase (and it wouldn't sound very natural to me, even in an archaic context. I can imagine reading "Il le faudrait quérir" in a seventeenth-century play, but I would be surprised to read "Il le faudrait éduquer" or "Il le faudrait civiliser". It doesn't sound right to me, somehow).


----------

