The French phrase “il faut” translates to “it is necessary.” It is an impersonal expression, meaning that the “il” does not translate as “he,” but rather as “it.” So it means “it is necessary,” not “he is necessary.”

In fact, the French verb “falloir,” which is the infinitive that “il faut” comes from, can only be conjugated in the “il” (it) form. There is no “je,” no “tu,” no “elle,” no “nous,” no “vous,” no “ils” and no “elles.”

Meanings

“Il faut” can mean “it is necessary,” “it takes,” or similar.

• il faut trois camions – it needs three trucks
• ce qu’il faut – what is needed
• il faut plusieurs hommes pour effectuer la tâche – it takes several men to do the task
• ce n’est pas l’outil qu’il faut – that’s not the right tool/that’s not the tool we need

“Il faut” with Indirect Object Pronouns

“Il faut” can be used with the indirect object pronouns “me, te, lui, nous, vous, leur.” These mean “to me, to you, to him/her, to us, to you, to them.”

• il me faut – I need
• il te faut – you need
• il lui faut – he/she needs
• il nous faut – we need
• il vous faut – you need
• il leur faut – they need
• il me faut ce livre – I need that book
• il leur faut 50.000 euros – they need 50,000 euros

Used with an infinitive:

• il faut faire – it is necessary to do
• il faut trouver une solution – it is necessary to find a solution
• il faut manger des fruits – it is necessary to eat fruit
• il me faut le faire – I have to do it/I must do it
• il ne faut pas la déranger – she must not be disturbed (it is necessary not to disturb her)

Other tenses & moods:

• il faut – it is necessary [present tense]
• il fallait – it was being necessary, it used to be necessary, it was necessary [imperfect tense]
• il a fallu – it has been necessary [past or passé composé tense]
• il avait fallu – it had been necessary [past perfect tense or plus-que-parfait tense]
• il faudra – it will be necessary [simple future or futur simple tense]
• il aura fallu – it will have been necessary [future perfect or futur antérieur tense]
• il faudrait – it would be necessary [present conditional]
• il aurait fallu – it would have been necessary [past conditional]
• qu’il faille – that it be necessary [present subjunctive]
• qu’il ait fallu – that it was necessary [past subjunctive]

Note:

There is no imperative (command) form of “falloir” or “il faut,” which means you can’t tell someone “Be necessary!” in French, although there are other ways to communicate the same message. There is also no present participle, but you can see that the past participle exists in the form of “fallu” (was necessary/necessitated).

With “que” & the subjunctive:

“Il faut” can be used with “que” and the subjunctive. This is used to form phrases like “it is necessary that you do something” (il faut que tu fasses quelque chose), but this is a topic for another blog post, at a later date. Stay tuned for more!