À Marie, il manque de la finesse.

Sentence Discussions French
#1

The translation given is “Mary is lacking in delicacy.”

If the subject is Mary, why is “il” used and not “elle”?

I thought it meant “In Mary’s opinion, he (or it) lacks finesse.”

#2

Literally this means: “To Marie, there is a lack of delicacy.”

The “il” is called “pronom impersonnel” because it doesn’t represent anything nor anyone. You have the same “il” in “il fait froid” or “il pleut dehors”.

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#3

Does it mean that Mary herself lacks delicacy, or that she thinks something else does?

#4

She lacks it. It is stated with the « à ».

Similar usage of this à and « il » would be :

  • Il pleut à Paris
  • Il n’y a pas de métro à Saint-Tropez

A more common usage of this sentence would be: « il LUI manque de la finesse. » or as you guessed « elle manque de finesse ».

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#5

Thanks for the explanation with “lui”. That makes “à Marie” make much better sense.