French has a small but very useful family of impersonal constructions that flip English-style subject-verb relationships. The pattern il me reste — literally "it remains to me" — is how French expresses what English handles with the verb have left. When you want to say I have five euros left or we still have two days, French does not say j'ai cinq euros restants; it says il me reste cinq euros. The experiencer becomes an indirect object, the thing remaining becomes the grammatical subject, and the verb agrees with that subject — all introduced by a dummy il that has no semantic content.
This page covers the impersonal rester construction, contrasts it with the personal use of the same verb, and drills the patterns that English speakers most often get wrong. Master this structure and you unlock something native speakers say dozens of times a day.
The core pattern: il + me/te/lui/nous/vous/leur + reste + thing
The skeleton is rigid:
Il (dummy subject) + indirect object pronoun (the experiencer) + reste + the thing remaining
The verb stays in the third-person singular in this impersonal construction, regardless of whether the post-verbal noun is singular or plural. Il is the grammatical subject, and il is singular — so reste, never restent, even with a plural like cinq euros or deux jours. This is the same logic as il y a (which never becomes il y ont) and il faut: in an impersonal construction, the verb agrees with the dummy il, not with the logical subject that follows.
Il me reste cinq euros pour finir la semaine.
I have five euros left to finish the week.
Il te reste du temps avant le train ?
Do you have any time left before the train?
Il lui reste deux jours pour rendre son dossier.
He/she has two days left to turn in the file.
Il nous reste trois bouteilles de vin pour ce soir.
We have three bottles of wine left for tonight.
Il leur restait à peine un peu d'espoir après cette nouvelle.
They had barely any hope left after that news.
Il me reste encore beaucoup de choses à faire avant de partir.
I still have lots of things left to do before leaving.
Il nous reste deux jours et trois nuits dans cet hôtel.
We have two days and three nights left in this hotel.
Why French structures it this way
The logic of il me reste is that the thing left over is presented as something that "remains to" the experiencer — a kind of passive arrangement where the experiencer does not actively have anything but rather receives what is left. English splits this conceptual space across two verbs (have and remain), but French uses just rester with an indirect object construction.
This is the same pattern you see with other "experiencer" verbs in French:
- Il me manque trois euros — I'm three euros short (literally: three euros are missing to me)
- Il me faut du sucre — I need sugar (literally: sugar is needed to me)
- Il me semble que... — it seems to me that...
- Il me plaît — I like it (literally: it pleases me)
In each case, the experiencer is encoded as an indirect object, not as the grammatical subject. This is very different from the English pattern, where the experiencer almost always becomes the subject (I have, I lack, I need, I think, I like). French distributes the experiencer role in two ways: sometimes as a subject (j'ai, je manque), sometimes as an indirect object (il me reste, il me manque). The indirect-object pattern tends to feel more idiomatic and is often the only natural option for certain meanings.
Personal vs. impersonal use of rester
The verb rester has two distinct uses, and confusing them is one of the most frequent errors English speakers make.
Personal rester — to stay, to remain (somewhere)
When rester takes a real, animate subject, it means to stay or to remain in a place or state. The subject is the person or thing doing the staying.
Je reste à la maison ce week-end, je suis trop fatiguée.
I'm staying home this weekend — I'm too tired.
Mes parents sont restés en Bretagne tout l'été.
My parents stayed in Brittany all summer.
Reste calme, on va trouver une solution.
Stay calm — we'll find a solution.
Cette chanson est restée en tête des charts pendant six semaines.
That song stayed at the top of the charts for six weeks.
In this personal use, rester takes être as its passé composé auxiliary (it is on the maison d'être list).
Impersonal il + reste — there is/are X left
When the dummy il is the subject, the construction expresses what is left over, what remains. The experiencer (if any) is encoded as an indirect object pronoun. This use does not have a personal subject; it cannot be inflected for je, tu, nous, vous.
Il me reste à étudier deux chapitres pour l'examen.
I still have to study two chapters for the exam. (impersonal — the dummy il)
Vs. Je reste à la maison pour étudier.
I'm staying home to study. (personal — je is the real subject)
The contrast is sharp:
Je reste deux jours à Paris.
I'm staying two days in Paris. (I am the one staying)
Il me reste deux jours à Paris.
I have two days left in Paris. (two days are what remain to me)
Both sentences are grammatical; they mean different things. The first describes the duration of your stay actively planned; the second describes what is left from a longer trip — the time that remains before you leave.
Common patterns and useful templates
Il + IO + reste + à + infinitive
This is the "still have to do" construction. The thing remaining is an action expressed by an infinitive.
Il me reste à faire la vaisselle et je viens.
I still have to do the dishes and then I'll come.
Il nous reste à signer le contrat avant midi.
We still have to sign the contract before noon.
Il leur restait à choisir entre deux candidats.
They still had to choose between two candidates.
Il ne lui reste plus qu'à attendre les résultats.
All he/she has left to do is wait for the results.
The expression ne...plus qu'à + infinitive ("the only thing left to do is...") is extremely common and worth learning as a chunk.
Il + IO + reste + noun phrase
Il me reste un peu de pain et du fromage.
I have a bit of bread and some cheese left.
Il vous reste combien de billets pour le concert de samedi ?
How many tickets do you have left for Saturday's concert?
Il ne me reste que dix minutes avant la réunion.
I only have ten minutes left before the meeting.
The ne...que restrictor ("only") is very natural with this structure. Il ne me reste que... = "the only thing I have left is..."
Past tense: il + IO + est resté / il + IO + restait
In the passé composé, the impersonal il reste construction uses être as auxiliary (because rester is a maison d'être verb): il est resté, never il a resté. The participle is invariable in the impersonal use, since the dummy il triggers no gender or number agreement:
Il m'est resté un goût amer de cette conversation.
A bitter taste of that conversation stayed with me. (literary register)
For most everyday uses, however, the imparfait is more common because the impersonal construction often describes an ongoing state of "having X left":
Il me restait à peine cinq euros à la fin du mois.
I had barely five euros left at the end of the month.
Quand on est arrivés, il leur restait deux places dans la salle.
When we arrived, they had two seats left in the room.
How to ask "how much do I have left?"
Three patterns, in increasing formality:
Il me reste combien de temps ?
How much time do I have left? (informal, common in speech)
Combien de temps il me reste ?
How much time do I have left? (also informal — fronted question word)
Combien de temps me reste-t-il ?
How much time do I have left? (formal/written — full inversion)
The third pattern with inversion is the most "correct" in school grammar but sounds quite stiff in spoken French. The first two are what you actually hear.
Il vous reste de la place pour deux personnes ?
Do you have room for two people? (asking at a restaurant)
Il vous restait des billets pour le spectacle de ce soir ?
Did you have any tickets left for tonight's show?
English-French alignment
Three English patterns all map to French il + IO + reste:
- I have X left → Il me reste X.
- There's still X for me / I still have X → Il me reste encore X.
- All I have left is X → Il ne me reste que X. / Il ne me reste plus que X.
The reverse direction is also useful: when you encounter il me reste in French, the natural English translation is almost always I have... left or there's still... left, not the literal it remains to me.
Il me reste à comprendre pourquoi tu ne m'as rien dit.
I still have to understand why you didn't tell me anything. (literally: it remains for me to understand)
Il ne nous restait plus qu'à rentrer chez nous.
The only thing left for us was to go home.
Common Mistakes
Mistake 1: Using a personal subject instead of dummy il.
❌ Je reste cinq euros.
Incorrect — this would mean 'I am staying five euros,' which is nonsensical. The thing remaining is not the subject; the dummy il is.
✅ Il me reste cinq euros.
I have five euros left.
Mistake 2: Using a direct object pronoun instead of an indirect object pronoun.
❌ Il le reste deux jours pour finir le projet.
Incorrect — the experiencer is always an indirect object pronoun: me, te, lui, nous, vous, leur. Never le/la (those are direct object pronouns).
✅ Il lui reste deux jours pour finir le projet.
He/she has two days left to finish the project.
Mistake 3: Translating 'have left' literally with avoir + laissé.
❌ J'ai cinq euros laissés.
Incorrect — French does not use 'avoir + laissé' for 'have left' in the sense of 'remaining.' This sounds like 'I have abandoned five euros.'
✅ Il me reste cinq euros.
I have five euros left.
Mistake 4: Forgetting the dummy il in spoken French.
❌ Me reste deux minutes avant le bus.
Incorrect — even in casual speech, the dummy il is required. Dropping it sounds ungrammatical.
✅ Il me reste deux minutes avant le bus.
I have two minutes left before the bus.
Mistake 5: Confusing personal rester (to stay) with impersonal il reste.
❌ Il me reste à la maison ce soir.
Mismatch of construction — this would mean 'staying at home is what remains to me,' which is awkward. To say 'I'm staying home,' use the personal form.
✅ Je reste à la maison ce soir.
I'm staying home tonight. (personal je)
✅ Il me reste à finir mes devoirs avant de regarder la télé.
I still have to finish my homework before watching TV. (impersonal, with infinitive)
Mistake 6: Wrong word order with a fronted question word.
❌ Combien il reste me de temps ?
Incorrect — the indirect object pronoun me/te/lui/nous/vous/leur sticks to the verb, never separated from it.
✅ Combien de temps il me reste ?
How much time do I have left? (informal)
✅ Combien de temps me reste-t-il ?
How much time do I have left? (formal inversion)
Key takeaways
The construction il + IO + reste + X is one of French's most useful idioms, with no clean English structural equivalent. Memorize the formula:
Il (dummy) + me/te/lui/nous/vous/leur (experiencer) + reste (verb) + X (thing remaining or à + infinitive)
The verb stays third-person singular (reste, never restent) because the dummy il is what controls agreement; the experiencer is always an indirect object pronoun (me, te, lui, nous, vous, leur); and the il never disappears, even in casual speech. Once you internalize this pattern, you have access to a whole family of similar constructions — il me manque, il me faut, il me semble — that follow the same logic.
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- Manquer: 'X manque à Y'A2 — Manquer is the verb that ambushes every English-speaking learner: 'I miss you' is tu me manques (you are missed by me), not je te manque (I am missed by you, which means 'you miss me'). Same inverted construction as plaire — the subject is the missed person, the experiencer is the indirect object.
- Plaire: 'X plaît à Y'A2 — Plaire is French's piacere-style verb — 'X pleases Y' rather than 'Y likes X.' The thing liked is the grammatical subject; the person who likes it is the indirect object. The construction lives alongside aimer in everyday French and is the engine behind s'il vous plaît, tu me plais, and ça me plaît.
- Le Passé Composé: OverviewA1 — The passé composé is French's main spoken past tense — used for completed past events, formed with avoir or être plus a past participle. It does the work that English splits between simple past (I ate) and present perfect (I have eaten).
- Les Pronoms Compléments d'Objet Indirect (COI)A1 — Indirect object pronouns — me, te, lui, nous, vous, leur — replace 'à + person'. They sit in front of the verb just like direct object pronouns, but the third-person forms (lui, leur) are completely distinct from le/la/les.
- Impersonal Verbs: OverviewA2 — French uses a dummy 'il' as the subject of a class of verbs whose 'subject' refers to nothing in particular: il pleut (it's raining), il faut (it is necessary), il y a (there is/are), il est huit heures (it's eight o'clock), il s'agit de... (it's about...). The 'il' is purely grammatical — it doesn't refer to a person or thing. This page maps the impersonal-verb system: weather, existence, necessity, time, and the productive pattern of impersonalizing ordinary verbs (il manque trois étudiants — three students are missing).