One of the words that came up in the French Conversation Group last night was faillir [fa.jiʁ], which means to almost do something or to fail.

Whether you almost do something or fail to do it is really a matter of perspective – the end result is the same. Yesterday, for example, I almost made another episode of the Radio Omniglot podcast. I recorded about 15-20 minutes of it several times, decided it wasn’t good enough, then got distracted with other things, as often happens. I can talk about language-related topics at the drop of a hat until the cows come home, but actually making my ramblings into a reasonably coherent podcast is a different kettle of fish. The editing always takes quite a while, and I usually find something else to do instead.

Today I told myself that I would make the podcast first thing, before checking emails, or getting distracted by other things. Several hours later I still haven’t produced the podcast, but I have learnt some more Swedish and Danish, answered some emails and written this.

Anyway, back to faillir – appears in expressions like:

• faillir faire = to almost/nearly do
• J’ai failli tomber = I almost/nearly fell
• J’ai failli lui dire = I almost/nearly told him
• J’ai failli l’oublier = I almost forgot about it
• faillir à qch = to fall short of sth
• faillir à sa tâche = to fall short of one’s tsak
• faillir à son devoir = to fall short of one’s duty
• Il ne faut pas faillir à notre devoir = We must not falter in our duty now
• J’ai un plan astucieux qui ne peut faillir = I have a cunning plan that cannot fail
• avoir failli faire qch = to narrowly miss doing sth

Related words include:

• failli(e) = bankrupt, insolvent
• la faillite = bankruptcy, collapse (political)
• une entreprise en faillite = a bankrupt business
• être en faillite = to be bankrupt
• faire en faillite = to go bankrupt, fail, go broke, go bust
• la ferme a failli faire en faillite = the farm almost went bankrupt
• il faut qu’il faille faire en faillite = he must almost go bankrupt
• faille = flaw, loophole, weak spot, fault
• faille fiscale = tax loophole
• faille spatio-temporelle = time warp

Faillir comes from the Middle French faillir (to fail), from the Old French falir, from the Vulgar Latin *fallīre, from the Latin fallere (to deceive, disappoint, cheat), from the Proto-Indo-European *bʰāl- (to lie, deceive). The English word fail comes from the same root, via the Middle English failen, and the Anglo-Norman faillir (to fail).

Another way to say that you almost did something is J’ai presque fait qch, for example, Il est presque tombé and Il a failli tomber both mean ‘He almost fell’. In the case of the latter, the impression I get is that he was expected to fall, but didn’t, while in the case of the former, there seems to be no expectation that he would fall. Is that right?

Sources: Reverso, Wiktionary, bab.la