Breakdown of Il faut faire attention à sa lâcheté avant de faire confiance au manipulateur.
à
at / to / in (general locations) / about (what one thinks about / reacts to)
au
to the / at the (masculine singular)
son
his/her/its (son, sa, ses)
il
it (impersonal subject)
falloir
to be necessary / must (impersonal)
faire attention
to pay attention, to be careful
avant de
before (+ infinitive)
faire confiance à
to trust (someone)
la lâcheté
the cowardice
le manipulateur
the manipulator
Questions & Answers about Il faut faire attention à sa lâcheté avant de faire confiance au manipulateur.
Since this lesson covers the subjunctive, why isn't it used here? Doesn't il faut trigger it?
While il faut que is a classic subjunctive trigger, il faut by itself takes an infinitive. We use il faut followed by an infinitive for general obligations like "One must watch out" or when the person doing the action is already obvious. To use the subjunctive here, you would need que and a specific subject, such as Il faut que tu fasses attention.
Why is it avant de faire instead of avant que followed by the subjunctive?
You must use avant de with an infinitive when the same subject performs both actions (here, the general "you" who must watch out and who might trust the manipulator). You only use avant que with the subjunctive when the two clauses have different subjects.
How do we know sa lâcheté means "his cowardice" rather than "her cowardice"?
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