Why do I use 'il'?

Hi folks. I just began with Rocket French and am a beginner. So far I love the program and I'm enjoying it very much. But I have a question: The sentence is 'il me faut un nouveau crayon'. If I look at Google translate, 'me faut' is translated 'I need' If I then add the 'il' at the beginning, the new phrase 'il me faut' is translated 'I need'. My question is, why do I include the 'il' at all especially as 'il' is translated: it, he, there, it is, we? Doesn't this make my sentence say in translation: It I need a new pencil. Looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks.

The verb *falloir* (to be necessary, to need) is akin to a "passive voice" verb. So, for instance, "Il me faut un nouveau crayon" translates more literally as: "It is needed by me a new pencil/crayon". So you need *il*, because it is actually the subject of falloir, not *me* [keep in mind that *me* is an object pronoun, not the subject pronoun which is *je*]. By the way, there is no other conjugation of falloir in the present tense other than third person singular (il/elle/on faut), i.e. there are no conjugations for je, tu, vous, nous, ils/elles because of this "passive" sentence structure.

Toru is certainly correct and well-said. In addition, I think there is a cultural "stylistic" factor operating here. One can certainly express one's self as subject in french - J'ai besoin d'un crayon - but my sense is that there is a Gallic preference for distancing one's self from the conversation, avoiding the me me me that might characterize some American speech par example. Thus, one will use "on" (on y va ... on doit ...) to mean we or us, and instead of saying "please give me back MY crayon" I think they might well say give me back LE crayon.

Thanks to both Torusan and Lance for the answers. I think I may have to sit down in a quiet spot and digest your explanations. I sort of get the point, but as English grammar (sooooo many years ago) was not a strength of mine, I will have to work my way through both replies. You've given me a great start though so thank you very much.

Not that this will help much, but my French neighbor says my biggest problem is that I compose my thoughts in English then translate them into French. Much better he says to commit french expressions to memory and then alter them, i.e. think in French. lol.

Hi Lance, I was thinking that might be the case too because sometimes translating word for word doesn't make sense. I'm sort of trying to do that, but it's hard to let go of the desire to understand the new language that way. Oh well, one day at a time right?

Oui, c'est ça! La route de français n'est pas une autoroute ;)

'La route de français n'est pas une autoroute'? Je vais avoir à penser à celui-là. (and yes, I did use Google translate to help me ;) , but don't tell anyone)

Je pense qu'il s'agit une question aussi d'absorber la culture , non seulement l'apprentisage des mots et grammaire ... (et oui, j'utilise Google aussi!)

I also use google translate which I find very helpful, but only use the English translation as a guide for whats being said and not word for word translation.

Bonjour à tous! I like what all of you have said and my best advice that I can give you is that you should never learn a language in a word for word fashion. This is because there are many phrase and expressions that really on a collection of words that either wouldn't make any sense or would have a different meaning if the words were separate. Learning how people communicate is more important than just learning which words they use. Keep that in mind as you are learning a language and try to pay attention when you listen to and watch native conversations. Continuez comme ça! Keep up the good work! - Marie-Claire