Questions & Answers about Il faut respecter la règle.
Il faut comes from the verb falloir, which means “to be necessary.”
- Literally, il faut = “it is necessary.”
- In real English, we usually translate it as:
- “one must”
- “you have to”
- “we must”
- “it’s necessary to”
So Il faut respecter la règle can be understood as:
- “The rule must be respected.”
- “You have to follow the rule.”
- “We must follow the rule.”
The French sentence stays impersonal; English often chooses a more natural subject like you or we.
In this structure, il does not refer to a person at all. It is a dummy/impersonal “it”, like in English “It is raining.”
- Il faut = impersonal expression: “it is necessary.”
- There is no hidden “he” in the sentence.
So il here is just a grammatical subject required by French; it doesn’t carry meaning by itself.
Faut is the 3rd person singular form of the verb falloir.
Falloir is a defective verb:
- It is used only in the 3rd person singular (with il).
- You do not say: je faux, tu faux, nous fallons, etc. Those forms don’t exist.
Common forms of falloir:
- Present:
- Il faut – it is necessary / one must
- Imperfect (past, ongoing/background):
- Il fallait – it was necessary / one had to
- Future:
- Il faudra – it will be necessary / one will have to
- Passé composé (completed past):
- Il a fallu – it was necessary / one had to (at some point)
Example:
- Hier, il a fallu respecter la règle.
“Yesterday, we/you had to follow the rule.”
Both express obligation, but the nuance is different:
Il faut respecter la règle
- Impersonal, more general.
- Can mean “In general, the rule must be followed / one has to follow the rule.”
- Sounds somewhat less direct and more like a general principle or rule.
Vous devez respecter la règle
- Directly addresses you (formal you or plural you).
- Stronger, more personal: “You must follow the rule.”
- Often used as a direct instruction or order.
So:
- Classroom rule written on the wall: Il faut respecter la règle.
- Teacher speaking directly to students: Vous devez respecter la règle.
In French, respecter is a direct transitive verb: it takes its object without a preposition.
- respecter quelque chose = to respect / obey / follow something
So you say:
- respecter la règle – to follow the rule
and not: - ✗ respecter à la règle
Other examples:
- respecter les consignes – to follow the instructions
- respecter la loi – to obey the law
With a rule, respecter normally means “to obey / to follow / to comply with.”
So respecter la règle =
- “to follow the rule”
- “to obey the rule”
With people, respecter quelqu’un usually means:
- to respect them in the moral / emotional sense (treat them properly).
Examples:
- respecter ses parents – to respect your parents
- respecter la limitation de vitesse – to obey the speed limit
In French, nouns almost always need an article (or some determiner like ce, mon, chaque, aucune, etc.). You cannot normally leave a singular noun bare the way English sometimes does.
So French prefers:
- la règle – the rule
not just règle on its own.
La is the definite article, feminine singular: “the.”
We use la here because we are referring to a specific, known rule in the context:
- Il faut respecter la règle.
“You must follow the rule (the one we’re talking about).”
Règle is grammatically feminine, so it takes la in the singular and une as the indefinite article:
- la règle, une règle, les règles.
Unfortunately, French gender is mostly arbitrary and must be learned word by word. There are some patterns (e.g. many nouns ending in -tion are feminine), but règle doesn’t follow a simple universal rule that you can apply everywhere.
Practical tip:
- When you learn a new noun, always learn it with its article:
- une règle (a rule / a ruler)
That way you memorize its gender.
- une règle (a rule / a ruler)
To negate Il faut respecter la règle, you wrap ne … pas around faut:
- Il ne faut pas respecter la règle.
Meaning:
- “One must not follow the rule.”
- “You’re not supposed to follow the rule.”
- “The rule must not be followed.”
So il ne faut pas expresses a prohibition or a strong recommendation not to do something.
Compare:
- Il faut respecter la règle. – You must follow the rule.
- Il ne faut pas respecter la règle. – You must not follow the rule.
Yes, and it’s very natural.
Il faut respecter la règle.
Focuses on one particular rule (clear in the context).Il faut respecter les règles.
Means “You must follow the rules” (all applicable rules, rules in general in that situation).
The grammar is identical; only la → les and règle → règles (plural).
A standard careful pronunciation (in IPA) is roughly:
- [il fo ʁɛspɛkte la ʁɛgl]
Breaking it down:
- Il → [il] (a clear l at the end)
- faut → [fo] (lt is silent; sounds like “fo”)
- respecter → [ʁɛspɛkte] (final -er sounds like -é [e])
- la → [la]
- règle → [ʁɛgl] (the final e is silent; you hear a final gl cluster)
There is no liaison between faut and respecter here: you don’t pronounce a t sound between them.
Both express necessity, but the structure and emphasis differ:
Il faut respecter la règle.
- Il faut + infinitive
- General, impersonal: “It is necessary to follow the rule / One must follow the rule.”
- No specific subject is mentioned.
Il faut que tu respectes la règle.
- Il faut que + subjunctive
- Now the obligation is placed on a specific person: tu.
- Meaning: “You must follow the rule” / “It is necessary that you follow the rule.”
Grammar point:
- After il faut que, the following verb (respectes) must be in the subjunctive (here: tu respectes).
When the obligation is general or impersonal, French commonly uses:
- Il faut + infinitive
- Il faut respecter la règle. – One must follow the rule.
- Il faut manger. – One has to eat.
If you want to specify who must do the action, you usually switch to:
- Il faut que + [subject] + [verb in the subjunctive]
- Il faut que tu respectes la règle. – You must follow the rule.
- Il faut que nous partions. – We must leave.
So:
- Infinitive → neutral, impersonal obligation.
- Il faut que + subjunctive → obligation targeted at a specific subject.