Breakdown of Il faut que nous parlions de ce besoin.
nous
we / us (object pronoun)
ce
this (before a noun)
parler
to speak
falloir
to be necessary / must (impersonal)
le besoin
the need
Questions & Answers about Il faut que nous parlions de ce besoin.
Why is parlions used here instead of the normal present tense parlons?
The phrase il faut que (it is necessary that) always requires the verb that follows it to be in the subjunctive mood. So, the normal present tense parlons changes to the subjunctive parlions.
Doesn't parlions look exactly like the imperfect tense?
Yes, it does! For nous and vous, regular verbs in the present subjunctive have the exact same endings as they do in the imperfect tense (-ions and -iez). You can tell it is the subjunctive here because it directly follows the trigger il faut que.
The translation says 'We need to talk', but why doesn't the French sentence start with nous?
Il faut is an impersonal expression, meaning the il just stands for 'it' as in 'it is necessary'. Instead of saying 'we need to', French commonly phrases this as 'it is necessary that we...' which translates to il faut que nous....
Why do we use de after parlions?
In French, the verb parler is followed by the preposition de when you want to say 'to talk about' a topic.
I usually see besoin in the phrase avoir besoin de. What is it doing here?
In this sentence, besoin is used on its own as a masculine noun meaning a 'need'. It is pointed out by the demonstrative adjective ce to mean 'this need'.
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