Word
Il est interdit de changer les stores sur la façade.
Meaning
It is forbidden to change the blinds on the facade.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Il est interdit de changer les stores sur la façade.
être
to be
sur
on
changer
to change
il
it (impersonal subject)
Questions & Answers about Il est interdit de changer les stores sur la façade.
Why use il est interdit instead of c'est interdit?
In formal French, il est is the correct pronoun for impersonal expressions when followed by an adjective and the logical subject (here, the action de changer). You will often hear c'est interdit de changer in casual, everyday speech, but the impersonal passive with il is required for official rules like this one.
What makes il est interdit an impersonal passive construction?
It is impersonal because the pronoun il does not refer to a specific person or thing; it functions like the dummy subject 'it' in English. It is passive because the past participle interdit describes a state of prohibition imposed by an unnamed authority, rather than having a specific active subject doing the forbidding.
Why do we need the word de before changer?
When you use an impersonal construction formatted as il est + adjective + infinitive, you must connect the adjective and the infinitive with the preposition de. It acts as a necessary bridge showing what exactly is forbidden.