Why is "il lui faut de l'aide" - he / she needs some help and "il te faut de l'aide" - you must help? I am getting very confused with this expression!
Il faut
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Jane H.Kwiziq community member
Il faut
This question relates to:French lesson "Expressing necessity and obligation in French with "il faut""
Asked 1 year ago
Bonjour Jane,
The construction is il (indirect object pronoun) faut de l'aide where "de l'" is a partitive article (some).
You are correct when you interpret "il lui faut de l'aide" as he/she needs some help, but then for the same construction you interpret "il te faut de l'aide" as "must help".
I suspect that you don't realise that "te" is an indirect pronoun in this case -- the confusion may come from the fact that "te" can be direct or indirect depending on the context.
So "il te faut de l'aide" --> you need some help.
Bonne journée
Jim
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