# French question:  has the verb "falloir" always been incomplete?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-question-has-the-verb-falloir-always-been-incomplete/727839>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 14, 2015, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-question-has-the-verb-falloir-always-been-incomplete/727839 "2015-08-14T15:08:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-question-has-the-verb-falloir-always-been-incomplete/727839/1 "2015-08-14T15:08:49Z")

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Falloir only has one conjugation: “il faut”, meaning “it is necessary” then followed by another verb in the subjonctif.

Has falloir always been incomplete in this way, or in the past was it a normal verb with a regular conjugation pattern that gradually evolved into an incomplete verb?

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**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-question-has-the-verb-falloir-always-been-incomplete/727839/2 "2015-08-14T15:26:52Z")

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[More forms in Old French](http://micmap.org/dicfro/search/tableaux-de-conjugaison/falloir) Edit: it looks like the defective _falloir_ is just a variant of the perfectly normal **faillir**.

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**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-question-has-the-verb-falloir-always-been-incomplete/727839/3 "2015-08-14T15:29:16Z")

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[https://fr.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/falloir](https://fr.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/falloir)

It’s been that way since at least the 1100s, but I don’t think the Latin word it gradually evolved from (_fallere_) was used that way in Roman times, so the usage developed sometime in the Middle Ages.

(Actually, according to that link, it was passive until the 1400s, when the current construction developed.)

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**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2015, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-question-has-the-verb-falloir-always-been-incomplete/727839/4 "2015-08-15T16:16:28Z")

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So from “faillir” meaning “to almost do something”, there was a singular off-shoot meaning “necessary to do something”. Those do seem close meanings. Interesting.

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**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2015, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-question-has-the-verb-falloir-always-been-incomplete/727839/5 "2015-08-15T16:58:36Z")

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> [@Northern\_Piper](#):
>
> Falloir only has one conjugation: “il faut”, meaning “it is necessary” then followed by another verb in the subjonctif.

It can also be an infinitive.

> [@Northern\_Piper](#):
>
> Has falloir always been incomplete in this way, or in the past was it a normal verb with a regular conjugation pattern that gradually evolved into an incomplete verb?

Not to dispute that there’s only 3rd person singular forms, but there’s also ‘il fallait’ and ‘il faudrait’.

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**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2015, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-question-has-the-verb-falloir-always-been-incomplete/727839/6 "2015-08-15T17:02:53Z")

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> [@Northern\_Piper](#):
>
> So from “faillir” meaning “to almost do something”,

Rather “to miss”, or, quite obviously, “to fail”(English stayed more faithful to the original meaning), via expressions like “so little was missing to achieve whatever”, to the idea that the little thing is what is required, hence that the verb means “to need”, “to require”.