Il me faut et il lui faut

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Permalink Reply by adel on October 11, 2009 at 3:38pm

1 J'ai besoin de lunettes 2 il a besoin de lunettes
By saying il lui faut, here I read it as " he must have eyeglasses" I hope I got it right. I am sure members will help.

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on October 11, 2009 at 6:58pm

"J'ai besoin de..." and "Il me faut..." mean essentially the same thing. But if you use "Il me faut", you generally need a determiner before the noun: Il me faut des lunettes.

With J'ai besoin de..., you can actually say J'ai besoin de lunettes. The form you'd logically expect would be *J'ai besoin de des lunettes, but it turns out that in such cases, the second instance of de (or des etc) is suppressed.

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Permalink Reply by Crack1 on October 12, 2009 at 4:16am

Thanks Neil

Il me faut des lunettes.

Il lui faut des lunettes.

Being a native French speaker do you use the above sentences instead of 'J'ai besoin de des lunettes'?

Il faut boire de l'eau. [ When I am thirsty, I use this sentence.]
However, I will not say 'Il me faut boire de l'eau'.

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Permalink Reply by Frank on October 14, 2009 at 4:56am

Hi Crack,

"de des" is a sequence of words you will never come across in French. For some reason we just say "de".

You might sometimes hear "des" instead of "de" in this situation, but it sounds very uneducated.

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on October 14, 2009 at 11:45am

Or if the meaning is "I need THE glasses".

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Permalink Reply by Frank on October 14, 2009 at 11:53am

It would be "LES lunettes" then :)

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Permalink Reply by Crack1 on October 14, 2009 at 1:42pm

I thank both of you for the replies.

Frank
Where have you been?
I was eager to hear from you.

When you are thirsty, do you say the following?
Il me faut boire de l'eau.

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Permalink Reply by Frank on October 14, 2009 at 2:44pm

Hi Crack,

Well, work's been killing me lately, but I'm back on track.

When you are thirsty, do you say the following?
Il me faut boire de l'eau.

It's grammatically correct, but we'd rather use "Il faut que" (impersonal) + subjunctive here:

Il faut que je boive de l'eau

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Permalink Reply by Crack1 on October 14, 2009 at 2:59pm

Thanks Frank

Is the following wrong?

Il faut boire de l'eau.

I am used to say the above when I feel thirsty.
Please tell me.
....................................................................
I think yours is subjunctive. Am I wrong?
Il faut que je boive de l'eau

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Permalink Reply by Frank on October 14, 2009 at 3:07pm

"Il faut boire de l'eau" would be general advice, just like saying "Il faut manger des fruits et des légumes chaque jour". Because there's no pronoun but the impersonal one.

Introducing the "je" pronoun as in a previous sentence makes it more specific to you: _you_ feel thirsty. "Il faut boire de l'eau" really means "water is good for your health".

Permalink Reply by Crack1 on October 15, 2009 at 1:02pm

Thanks Frank
I have been making this mistake since 1994.

Now you have taught me the correct form.
So it should be the subjunctive form.

When I am hungry, I say that I must eat now.
Il faut que je mange quelque chose.
I must eat something.

Il faut que déjuner.
I must have lunch.
I hope both of my sentences are fine.

Permalink Reply by Frank on October 16, 2009 at 1:42am

Hi Crack

Il faut que déjuner

It should be Il faut que je déjeune, although using the infinitive form could also be used, but without the "que": Il faut déjeuner. But again, the later is a general rule, it doesn't mean that -You- must have lunch.

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