Breakdown of Pendant la panne du disque dur, j'ai failli m'évanouir !
je
I
avoir
to have
du
of the / from the (masculine singular, with plural des)
la
her, it (feminine direct object pronoun)
la panne
the breakdown / the failure
pendant
for / during (duration)
faillir
to almost (do)
le disque dur
the hard drive
s'évanouir
to faint
Questions & Answers about Pendant la panne du disque dur, j'ai failli m'évanouir !
Why does j'ai failli mean "I almost", and does it always have to be in the passé composé?
The verb faillir basically means "to fail". When used in the passé composé followed by an infinitive (like m'évanouir), it expresses that you "failed" to do something in the sense that you came incredibly close but ultimately didn't. To express this "near miss" meaning (almost doing something), French uses this structure almost exclusively in the passé composé.
Why is the reflexive pronoun m' placed before évanouir instead of before the conjugated verb?
When an infinitive follows a semi-auxiliary verb like faillir, aller, or devoir, any object or reflexive pronouns attach directly to the infinitive they belong to. Because you are using the pronominal verb s'évanouir (to faint), the m' stays right next to it, giving us j'ai failli m'évanouir.
Does the verb for "to faint" always have to be reflexive?
Can I use panne for any type of failure or breakdown?
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