Breakdown of Il fallait tenter de réparer ce vieux véhicule.
ce
this (before a noun)
vieux
old
réparer
to repair
il fallait
it was necessary, one had to
le véhicule
the vehicle
tenter de
to attempt to
Questions & Answers about Il fallait tenter de réparer ce vieux véhicule.
Why do we need de between tenter and réparer?
Because tenter (to attempt) belongs to a group of French verbs that require the preposition de before a following infinitive. Just like essayer de (to try to) or décider de (to decide to), you must use de to link the main verb to the action that follows it.
Why is Il fallait translated as 'We had to' when il usually means 'he'?
The verb falloir (to be necessary) is an impersonal verb, which means it is only ever conjugated with the pronoun il (acting as an impersonal 'it'). Literally, il fallait means 'it was necessary'. Depending on the context, English speakers usually translate this as 'we had to', 'they had to', or 'someone had to' to make it sound more natural.
Could we use the passé composé Il a fallu instead of the imperfect Il fallait here?
Yes, but it changes the nuance. The imperfect Il fallait describes a general background situation or an ongoing state in the past ('it was necessary at that time'). If you used Il a fallu, it would sound like a sudden, specific obligation that forced an immediate action ('at that exact moment, we were forced to').
Why is vieux placed before véhicule instead of after it?
While most French adjectives follow the noun, vieux (old) is part of a small group of common adjectives that always come before the noun. You can remember these with the acronym BANGS, which stands for adjectives describing Beauty, Age, Number, Goodness, and Size.
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