falloir
French, verb/fa.lwaʁ/
falloir is spelled F-A-L-L-O-I-R (7 letters) and appears 27 times per million words in written French, the 2,920th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Falloir is a French verb meaning “to need, have to, to be necessary (that)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Être de nécessité, de devoir, d’obligation, de bienséance”.
What does falloir mean in English?
verb
- 1
to need, have to, to be necessary (that)
Il faut que j'y aille
- 2
to take (time)
- 3
to be missing
Note: For related usage, see s'en falloir.
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Être de nécessité, de devoir, d’obligation, de bienséance. 2. Être ce dont on a besoin. 3. Ce que l’on doit donner d’argent à quelqu’un pour un prix, pour un salaire. 4. Manquer.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of falloir
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- fallant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- fallu participle past
- faut indicative present singular
- fallait imperfect indicative singular
- fallut historic indicative past
- faudra future indicative singular
- faudrait conditional singular third-person
- present indicative of avoir + past participle indicative multiword-construction perfect
- imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle indicative multiword-construction pluperfect
- past historic of avoir + past participle anterior indicative multiword-construction
- future of avoir + past participle future indicative multiword-construction
- conditional of avoir + past participle conditional multiword-construction perfect
- faille present singular subjunctive
- fallût imperfect singular subjunctive
- present subjunctive of avoir + past participle multiword-construction past subjunctive
- imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle multiword-construction pluperfect subjunctive
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce falloir?
- /fa.lwaʁ/
- \fa.lwaʁ\
- [fa.lwaʁ]
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
How common is falloir in French?
falloir appears 27 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).