Faillir – to almost do

	Share / Tweet / Pin Me!

The almost French verb

I love French words that don’t have straightforward English translations, and the verb faillir is one of the best. This regular -ir verb is most commonly used in the passé composé.*

Faillir + infinitive

Faillir has no direct verbal English equivalent when used as a semi-auxiliary verb; English needs an adverb or a short phrase to capture the meaning:

• to all but do
• to almost do
• to just about do
• to narrowly miss doing
• to nearly do
• to practically do

Par exemple…

J’ai failli pleurer quand je suis parti.		I almost cried when I left.
Elle a failli perdre son boulot.		She nearly lost her job.
Vous avez failli renverser deux piétons !		You narrowly missed running over two pedestrians!

Synonym: manquer à

Faillir à

When followed by a noun, faillir à is a formal way of talking about a failure.

J’ai failli à ma promesse.		I failed to keep my promise.
Tu as failli à ta tâche.		You failed in your task.

Expressions with faillir

• faillir à sa parole – to break one’s word
• faillir à la tradition – to break with tradition
• ne pas faillir à sa parole – to keep, true to one’s word
• ne pas faillir à sa réputation – to live up to one’s reputation
• ne pas faillir à la tradition – to keep to tradition
• résister jusqu’au bout sans faillir – to resist unflinchingly to the end
   
  archaic expressions
• le cœur me faillit – my heart skipped a bit
• le courage me faillit – my courage failed me

 * Faillir has regular conjugations in all tenses and moods, but the only ones you’re likely to encounter are past tenses: passé composé, passé simple, and plus-que-parfait.

 Related lessons

• Regular -ir verbs
• Semi-auxiliary verbs
• Verbs with prepositions

 Share / Tweet / Pin Me!