presque ou faillir ?

[abstract moth]

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presque ou faillir ?

[serene imp]

« avoir failli [infinitive] » is used to describe something that very nearly happened in the past but didn't whereas « presque » doesn't always imply that

with the former, there's also the sense that it was almost always assured that it was going to happen but something caused it to stop while with the latter, it was just interrupted or it was decided but backtracked

For example, saying « je lui en ai presque parlé » implies that there was a decision to speak to someone but on second thought it didn't happen whereas saying « j'ai failli lui en parler » implies that the speaker really was going to speak to someone about something and that he was about to say it but before he could, something prevented him from doing that