This lesson covers the extremely useful French verb phrase avoir failli, which means “to almost”.
avoir failli
to almost
Word origin
The Modern French verb faillir comes from fallere (to fail, to be mistaken) in Classic Latin.
Explanation
In French, the verb faillir on its own means “to fail”. However, when used in the passé composé and followed by an infinitive, avoir failli “to almost”. Here, the verb avoir (to have) is the auxiliary verb. For example, J’ai failli parler = I almost spoke.
Example sentences
J’ai failli tomber dans la rue.
I almost fell in the street.
Elle a failli oublier ses clés.
She almost forgot her keys.
For this last sentence, faillir à + noun means “to fail to keep”.
C’est dommage. Claude a failli à sa promesse.
What a shame. Claude failed to keep his promise.
Related lessons
References
Word of the Day | Lessons by David Issokson
