Falloir, Devoir, Pronouns – Mini French Lesson

**SCROLL DOWN TO WATCH A MINI FRENCH LESSON ON DEVOIR, FALLOIR, AND PRONOUNS**

TRANSLATE THE FOLLOWING SENTENCE USING THE VERB DEVOIR IN THE PRESENT TENSE:

👉 He has to leave the house now.

You have two options when translating this sentence to French.

👉 Il doit partir de la maison maintenant.

👉 Il doit quitter la maison maintenant.

It is important to notice that the verb partir is followed by a prepositional phrase beginning with de, while the verb quitter is followed by a direct object.

THE NEXT TRANSLATION REQUIRES AN INDIRECT OBJECT PRONOUN:

Translate using the verb falloir and an indirect object pronoun without using the subjunctive: ME – TE – LUI – NOUS – VOUS – LEUR

👉 He has to leave the house now.

You have two options when translating this sentence to French.

👉 Il lui faut partir de la maison maintenant.

👉 Il lui faut quitter la maison maintenant.

Place the pronoun lui before the verb, and notice the subject of the English translation is not the same as the subject in French (which is always il when using the verb falloir). The subject in English corresponds to the indirect object pronoun.

TRANSLATE USING FALLOIR IN THE SUBJUNCTIVE. BEGIN WITH IL FAUT QUE:

👉 He has to leave the house now.

Click here if you’re ready to learn more about the subjunctive!

👉 Il faut qu’il parte de la maison maintenant.

👉 Il faut qu’il quitte la maison maintenant.

Remember that the verb partir is followed by a prepositional phrase beginning with de, while the verb quitter is followed by a direct object. This is very important as we begin to look at using pronouns.

REPLACE THE WORDS IN ITALICS WITH A PRONOUN:

👉 Il doit partir de la maison maintenant.

👉 Il doit quitter la maison maintenant.

ANSWERS:

👉 Il doit en partir maintenant. Use the pronoun en with de + noun.

👉 Il doit la quitter maintenant. La is a direct object pronoun.

REPLACE THE WORDS IN ITALICS WITH A PRONOUN:

👉 Il lui faut partir de la maison maintenant.

👉 Il lui faut quitter la maison maintenant.

ANSWERS:

👉 Il lui faut en partir maintenant.

👉 Il lui faut la quitter maintenant.