Word
Il fallait travailler dur tous les jours.
Meaning
One had to work hard every day.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Il fallait travailler dur tous les jours.
travailler
to work
tous les jours
every day
il fallait
it was necessary, one had to
dur
hard, tough
Questions & Answers about Il fallait travailler dur tous les jours.
What exactly does il fallait mean in this sentence?
Il fallait is the imperfect (past) tense of il faut (it is necessary / one must). Here, it translates to "it was necessary to" or "one had to". Just like in the present tense, the il is impersonal and just means "it", rather than "he".
Why is travailler in the infinitive (unconjugated) form?
Whenever you use an impersonal expression like il fallait, the action verb that follows must be in its infinitive form. You are literally saying "It was necessary to work."
I thought dur meant "hard" like a solid object. Does it also mean working hard?