To do in French: how faire works, and when it means make

To do in French is faire, and the same verb also covers “to make”. This page gives the full faire conjugation, then the passé composé, the near future and the phrases built on it. A table then sorts “do” from “make”. Faire is irregular, like avoir, être and aller. For the other verbs that break the rules, see French irregular verbs.

What is the conjugation of the French verb faire?

Larousse lists faire as a third-group verb that takes avoir in compound tenses [1]. The infinitive is faire. The participle is fait, and Larousse also prints faite, faits and faites [1].

All forms come from Larousse’s conjugation page [1]. The impératif is fais, faisons, faites, and the present participle is faisant [1].

How do you conjugate faire in the present tense?

To conjugate faire in the present tense, learn the six forms as a set: je fais, tu fais, il fait, nous faisons, vous faites, ils font [1]. Two of them break the usual pattern. The Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) says faire, and verbs built on it such as défaire, ends in -tes in the second person plural, and in -ont in the third person plural [6]. So it is vous faites and ils font, not “vous faisez” or “ils faisent”.

The singular is fais, fais, fait [1]. Watch the last letter: je and tu end in s, and il ends in t.

What is the passé composé of faire?

The passé composé of faire is avoir in the présent plus fait: j’ai fait, tu as fait, il a fait, nous avons fait, vous avez fait, ils ont fait [1]. Larousse adds that se faire, the pronominal verb, takes être instead: ça s’est fait tout seul [1]. For a drill on choosing avoir or être, see Passé composé practice.

How do you say “I am going to do” with faire?

The near future is aller in the présent plus the infinitive, so “I’m going to do it” is je vais faire [7]. Only aller changes, and faire stays as it is: tu vas faire, nous allons faire, ils vont faire [7].

The OQLF says the near future ties the event to the moment of speaking and treats it as more certain than the futur simple [7]. Its example uses faire: Je vais faire une pause. À tout à l’heure ! and not Je ferai une pause [7]. The futur je ferai in the table above is for more hypothetical events [7]. For the full aller table, see the aller conjugation page.

What does faire mean beyond “to do”?

Faire does many jobs, and Larousse’s French-English dictionary lists many senses [2]. These are the ones to meet first.

For the weather lines in more depth, read Weather in French. Larousse’s dictionary says faire plus an infinitive shows that someone else does the action [8].

How do you say “to make” in French?

To make in French is often faire too. Larousse translates faire as “to make” for a meal or coffee, a mistake or a choice, a speech and a bed, and as “to do” for an exercise or research [2]. Here is how its examples sort.

The English verb is not a safe guide. The same French verb gives “to play tennis” and “to cook” [2][3]. When you want to say “to make” or “to do”, try faire first and check the phrase in a dictionary.

Common mistakes

• Writing “vous faisez”. The OQLF says faire ends in -tes in the second person plural: vous faites [6].
• Writing “ils faisent”. The third person plural is ils font [6].
• Using être in the passé composé. Faire takes avoir: j’ai fait [1]. Only se faire takes être [1].
• Using the futur for something happening now. For a break you are about to take, say je vais faire une pause, not je ferai une pause [7].
• Translating “make” word for word. Larousse gives several English verbs for faire, so check the phrase rather than the verb [2].
• Saying “il est beau” for fine weather. The dictionary phrase is il fait beau [5].
• Trusting a conjugation page from a blog, including this one. Dictionaries and language offices update their entries. Check each source’s date against the date at the top of this page.

See also: how to type French accents.

Sources