Ilfaiblissait

Ilfaiblissait is normally read as il faiblissait, the imperfect tense form of the French verb faiblir, meaning to become weaker. The spelling with no space, ilfaiblissait, is not standard in contemporary French and is typically a typographical error or a result of automatic text processing or search indexing.

Faiblir is an intransitive verb describing a decrease in strength, energy, influence, or intensity. In the imperfect, il faiblissait describes a gradual or ongoing weakening in the past: Il faiblissait depuis plusieurs heures, et sa résistance diminuait peu à peu. The form is used in narrative and descriptive contexts to convey a process rather than a completed action.

Etymology: The verb faiblir is related to the adjective faible, meaning weak. The noun and verb forms share the semantic core of diminished strength, with faiblir used to indicate the process of becoming weaker.

Usage notes: In modern French, faiblir is common in literary and journalistic writing as well as everyday speech when describing fatigue, waning support, or fading light. The correct standard orthography requires a space between the subject pronoun il and the verb form: il faiblissait. The concatenated form without a space is rarely, if ever, considered correct in formal writing and may appear only as a typographic error or in certain digital contexts.

See also: faiblir; faible.