Breakdown of Le stagiaire a touché le fer brûlant, faute de patience.
avoir
to have
la patience
the patience
toucher
to touch
le fer
the iron
le stagiaire
the intern
faute de
for lack of
brûlant
scorching
Questions & Answers about Le stagiaire a touché le fer brûlant, faute de patience.
Why is there no article before patience? Shouldn't it be la patience?
In French, you usually need a definite article for abstract nouns. However, after the prepositional phrase faute de (meaning "for lack of"), the article is usually dropped. You just attach the bare noun directly, which is why we see faute de patience instead of faute de la patience.
Could I use an infinitive verb after faute de instead of a noun here?
Does the word faute in faute de mean "fault" here?
Not exactly. While the noun une faute on its own means "a fault" or "a mistake," the fixed expression faute de specifically means "for lack of" or "for want of." It points to the absence of something rather than pointing blame, even though lacking patience was certainly a mistake in this case!
Why is brûlant used to describe the iron instead of brûlé?
brûlant is the present participle of brûler (to burn) acting as an adjective. It describes something actively giving off heat (burning or scorching). If you used the past participle brûlé, it would mean the iron itself had been burned or damaged by fire.
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