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Il faut with complex expressions
Il faut manger.
Il faut dormir.
Il faut appliquer la loi.
Is that simple combination also valid with complex expressions? Like this:
Il faut mettre son grain de sel dans ce débat.
Il faut prendre son mal en patience.
In those, the possessive pronoun "son" obviously refers to some subject to the verb, an 'actor' yet still missing. Must that actor be present to properly match the "son" ? Like this:
Elle me dit qu'il faut mettre mon grain de sel dans ce débat.
Il nous faut prendre notre mal en patience.
Thanks for looking at this.
Replies to This Discussion
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EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on -
Yes I think you have got the construction right.
In your example:
"Elle me dit qu'il faut mettre mon grain de sel dans ce débat. " you could also have said
"Elle me dit qu'il faut mettre son grain de sel dans ce débat." and the sense would have shifted a little bit(more general ,less specific).
Don't forget that you also have the option of including an indirect personal pronoun with "falloir" and so,I think you can also say
"Elle me disait qu'il me fallait mettre un grain de sel dans ce débat".
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Permalink Reply by Vedas on -
Hello,
Il faut prendre son mal en patience doesn't need the presence of a specific actor when it refers to the saying:
one has to resign to one's fate
just like when " il faut " means "one must" with a universal (saying) meaning. So in some circumstances you can utter such sentences when everyone is concerned but not anyone in particular. The fact that there is a personal pronoun in French might let you think that you speak to someone in particular but it more depends on the context.
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