Breakdown of Au lieu de faire des reproches, il faut sourire et réconforter son ami.
l'ami
the friend (m)
et
and
des
some (plural indefinite)
faire
to do, to make
son
his/her/its (son, sa, ses)
il
it (impersonal subject)
falloir
to be necessary / must (impersonal)
au lieu de
instead of
sourire
to smile
le reproche
the reproach
réconforter
to comfort
Questions & Answers about Au lieu de faire des reproches, il faut sourire et réconforter son ami.
Why is faire in the infinitive here instead of conjugated?
In French, when a verb immediately follows a preposition like de (as in the phrase au lieu de), it must be in the infinitive. While English uses the "-ing" form ("instead of making"), French strictly uses the infinitive after most prepositions, including à, de, pour, and sans.
Why does il faut translate to "one must" rather than "he must"?
The expression il faut is an impersonal phrase coming from the verb falloir. The pronoun il here is like the "it" in "it is raining"—it doesn't refer to a specific person. It translates to general obligations like "one must," "you have to," or "it is necessary to." To specifically say "he must," you would use the verb devoir, as in il doit.
If the sentence uses the impersonal il faut, why is the possessive adjective son used for "one's friend"?
When making a general statement using an impersonal structure like il faut, French defaults to the third-person singular possessive adjectives (son, sa, ses) to mean "one's." Grammatically, it acts as a generic third-person reference that applies to whoever the "one" happens to be.
Could I use the verb reprocher instead of the phrase faire des reproches?
Yes, you could say au lieu de reprocher, but faire des reproches is a highly natural, idiomatic way to express this in French. French often pairs a versatile verb like faire or avoir with a noun to describe an action, similar to how we might say "to make a suggestion" instead of "to suggest" in English.
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