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 10 months 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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