faillir

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fa.jiʁ/

• Audio (Canada (Shawinigan)):

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• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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Etymology 1

Inherited from Middle French faillir, from Old French falir, from Vulgar Latin *fallīre, from Latin fallere. See also falloir.

Verb

faillir

1. to almost do something

   J'ai failli aller en Allemagne, mais j'ai annulé au dernier moment

   I almost went to Germany, but cancelled at the last minute

2. to fail

   Tu as failli à ta mission.

   You failed your mission.

Conjugation

This verb has two conjugations, one is older and irregular, but is in modern usage giving way to a conjugation like that of finir. It is hardly used except in the infinitive, past historic, and the composed tenses. The third-person singular present indicative faut is also found in certain set phrases.

Conjugation of faillir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	faillir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	faillant /fa.jɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		failli /fa.ji/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	faux /fo/	faux /fo/	faut /fo/	faillons /fa.jɔ̃/	faillez /fa.je/	faillent /faj/
	imperfect	faillais /fa.jɛ/	faillais /fa.jɛ/	faillait /fa.jɛ/	faillions /faj.jɔ̃/	failliez /faj.je/	faillaient /fa.jɛ/
	past historic2	faillis /fa.ji/	faillis /fa.ji/	faillit /fa.ji/	faillîmes /fa.jim/	faillîtes /fa.jit/	faillirent /fa.jiʁ/
	future	faudrai or faillirai /fo.dʁe/ or /fa.ji.ʁe/	faudras or failliras /fo.dʁa/ or /fa.ji.ʁa/	faudra or faillira /fo.dʁa/ or /fa.ji.ʁa/	faudrons or faillirons /fo.dʁɔ̃/ or /fa.ji.ʁɔ̃/	faudrez or faillirez /fo.dʁe/ or /fa.ji.ʁe/	faudront or failliront /fo.dʁɔ̃/ or /fa.ji.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	faudrais or faillirais /fo.dʁɛ/ or /fa.ji.ʁɛ/	faudrais or faillirais /fo.dʁɛ/ or /fa.ji.ʁɛ/	faudrait or faillirait /fo.dʁɛ/ or /fa.ji.ʁɛ/	faudrions or faillirions /fo.dʁi.jɔ̃/ or /fa.ji.ʁjɔ̃/	faudriez or failliriez /fo.dʁi.je/ or /fa.ji.ʁje/	faudraient or failliraient /fo.dʁɛ/ or /fa.ji.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	faille /faj/	failles /faj/	faille /faj/	faillions /faj.jɔ̃/	failliez /faj.je/	faillent /faj/
	imperfect2	faillisse /fa.jis/	faillisses /fa.jis/	faillît /fa.ji/	faillissions /fa.ji.sjɔ̃/	faillissiez /fa.ji.sje/	faillissent /fa.jis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	—	—	—	—	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Synonyms

• échouer (2) (more common than faillir)

Derived terms

• faille
• faillissement

Descendants

• → German: fallieren
• → Swedish: fallera

Etymology 2

From faillite.

Verb

faillir

1. to go bankrupt

Conjugation

This is a regular verb of the second conjugation, like finir, choisir, and most other verbs with infinitives ending in -ir. One salient feature of this conjugation is the repeated appearance of the infix -iss-.

Conjugation of faillir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	faillir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	faillissant /fa.ji.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		failli /fa.ji/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	faillis /fa.ji/	faillis /fa.ji/	faillit /fa.ji/	faillissons /fa.ji.sɔ̃/	faillissez /fa.ji.se/	faillissent /fa.jis/
	imperfect	faillissais /fa.ji.sɛ/	faillissais /fa.ji.sɛ/	faillissait /fa.ji.sɛ/	faillissions /fa.ji.sjɔ̃/	faillissiez /fa.ji.sje/	faillissaient /fa.ji.sɛ/
	past historic2	faillis /fa.ji/	faillis /fa.ji/	faillit /fa.ji/	faillîmes /fa.jim/	faillîtes /fa.jit/	faillirent /fa.jiʁ/
	future	faillirai /fa.ji.ʁe/	failliras /fa.ji.ʁa/	faillira /fa.ji.ʁa/	faillirons /fa.ji.ʁɔ̃/	faillirez /fa.ji.ʁe/	failliront /fa.ji.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	faillirais /fa.ji.ʁɛ/	faillirais /fa.ji.ʁɛ/	faillirait /fa.ji.ʁɛ/	faillirions /fa.ji.ʁjɔ̃/	failliriez /fa.ji.ʁje/	failliraient /fa.ji.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	faillisse /fa.jis/	faillisses /fa.jis/	faillisse /fa.jis/	faillissions /fa.ji.sjɔ̃/	faillissiez /fa.ji.sje/	faillissent /fa.jis/
	imperfect2	faillisse /fa.jis/	faillisses /fa.jis/	faillît /fa.ji/	faillissions /fa.ji.sjɔ̃/	faillissiez /fa.ji.sje/	faillissent /fa.jis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	faillis /fa.ji/	—	faillissons /fa.ji.sɔ̃/	faillissez /fa.ji.se/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Further reading

• “faillir”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French falir, from Vulgar Latin *fallīre, from Latin fallere.

Verb

faillir

1. to fail
   • c. 1369, Jean Froissart, Chroniques:

     quant les lances leur failloient, ils se prendoient aux haches

     when their lances failed them, they took up their axes

   • 1595, Michel de Montaigne, Essais, book II, chapter 37:

     Ou, s’il leur plait, ils se servent encore de cet empirement, et en font leurs affaires par cet autre moyen qui ne leur peut jamais faillir

     Or, if they preferred, they still made use of this deterioration, and did their affairs by this other means which could never fail them

Descendants

• French: faillir
  • → German: fallieren
  • → Swedish: fallera

Old French

Verb

faillir

1. alternative infinitive of falir

Conjugation

This verb conjugates as a third-group verb. This verb has irregularities in its conjugation. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.

    Conjugation of faillir (see also Appendix:Old French verbs)

		simple			compound
infinitive		faillir			avoir fali, failli
gerund		en falant, faillant			gerund of avoir + past participle
present participle		falant, faillant
past participle		fali, failli
person		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		jo	tu	il	nos	vos	il
simple tenses	present	fail	faus	faut	falons, faillons	falez, failliez	falent, faillent
	imperfect	faloie, faleie, failloie, failleie	faloies, faleies, failloies, failleies	faloit, faleit, failloit, failleit	faliiens, faliens, failliiens, failliens	faliiez, faliez, failliiez, failliez	faloient, faleient, failloient, failleient
	preterite	fali, failli	falis, faillis	fali, failli	falimes, faillimes	falistes, faillistes	falirent, faillirent
	future	faudrai	faudras	faudra	faudrons	faudroiz, faudreiz, faudrez	faudront
	conditional	faudroie, faudreie	faudroies, faudreies	faudroit, faudreit	faudriiens, faudriens	faudriiez, faudriez	faudroient, faudreient
compound tenses	present perfect	present tense of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect tense of avoir + past participle
	past anterior	preterite tense of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future tense of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional tense of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que jo	que tu	qu’il	que nos	que vos	qu’il
simple tenses	present	faille	failles	faille	failliens, faillons	failliez	faillent
	imperfect	faillise	faillises	faillit	faillisons, faillisiens	faillisoiz, faillisez, faillisiez	faillisent
compound tenses	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nos	vos	–
		—	fail	—	falons, faillons	falez, failliez	—

Descendants

• faillir