All about Faillir

Faillir is a very interesting and useful French verb. It is irregular in conjugation and does not have an English equivalent; the simplest translation is "to almost do something."


Faillir is usually followed by an infinitive and can be translated by "to almost do something," "to all but do something," "to very nearly do something," or "to narrowly miss doing something." Faillir is most commonly used in the past:

   J'ai failli tomber
   I almost fell

   Nous avons failli rater le train
   We very nearly missed the train

   Il a failli dire « non » avant d'y réfléchir
   He almost said "no" before thinking about it


Faillir à

Faillir à is followed by a noun and means "to fail in/at" or "to fail to keep":

   J'ai failli à ma mission
   I failed in my mission

   Il a failli à sa parole
   He failed to keep his word


Expressions with Faillir

   faillir à la tradition - to break with tradition

   ne pas faillir à sa parole - to keep / be true to one's word

   ne pas faillir à sa réputation - to live up to one's reputation

   résister jusqu'au bout sans faillir - to resist unflinchingly to the end


Conjugations

Though faillir has conjugations in all the tenses, this verb is used almost exclusively in the past (passé composé, passé simple, and plus-que-parfait), so the past participle failli is the most important form for you to know. To talk about nearly doing something in another tense, manquer de is preferable (though the meaning is subtly different).

Note that il faut is the third person singular present tense of both faillir and the impersonal verb falloir.

Faillir conjugations