{"id":3417,"date":"2020-01-04T17:29:39","date_gmt":"2020-01-04T17:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clozemaster.com\/blog\/?p=3417"},"modified":"2020-08-31T15:02:00","modified_gmt":"2020-08-31T15:02:00","slug":"french-faire-conjugation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clozemaster.com\/blog\/french-faire-conjugation\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning to Master the \u201cFaire\u201d Conjugation"},"content":{"rendered":"

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You don\u2019t have to study French for very long to know how difficult and unpredictable the verbs can often be. The verb faire is a <\/em>very irregular verb that is also essential to know in French.<\/p>\n

The verb faire<\/em> is very versatile and has a lot of meanings. Most often it means \u2018to do\u2019 or \u2018to make\u2019, but it has several other meanings. This verb comes up a lot in French is one that you will use a lot and need to know. While the verb is one of the most common in French, the faire<\/em> conjugation is also quite irregular.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Faire<\/em> Conjugation in the Present Tense<\/h2>\n

First off, let\u2019s see what the faire<\/em> conjugation looks like in le pr\u00e9sent<\/em> (the present tense). The good news is that this is the most irregular form of the faire conjugation so they get easier from here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Singular<\/strong><\/td>\nPlural<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Je fais<\/td>\nI make\/do<\/td>\nNous faisons<\/td>\nWe make\/do<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tu fais<\/td>\nYou make\/do<\/td>\nVous faites<\/td>\nYou make\/do<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Il fait<\/td>\nHe makes\/does<\/td>\nIls font<\/td>\nThey make\/do<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Elle fait<\/td>\nShe makes\/does<\/td>\nElles font<\/td>\nThey make\/do<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
On fait<\/td>\nWe are\/one makes<\/td>\n\u00a0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

While the faire<\/em> conjugation can be a bit tricky, it\u2019s less complicated than the \u00eatre<\/em> or avoir<\/em><\/a> conjugation. That being said, this is a must-know verb in French since it\u2019s one of the most commonly used verbs in the language. Generally, you can use the verb faire<\/em> in the same way you would use \u2018do\u2019 or \u2018make\u2019 in English.<\/p>\n

Je fais<\/strong><\/span> la vaisselle
\u2018I\u2019m doing the dishes\u2019<\/p>\n

Qu\u2019est-ce que tu fais<\/strong><\/span>?
\u2018What are you doing?\u2019<\/p>\n

Elle fait<\/strong><\/span> une erreur
\u2018She\u2019s making a mistake\u2019<\/p>\n

Il fait <\/strong><\/span>le lit
\u2018He makes the bed\u2019<\/p>\n

Les choix que nous faisons<\/strong><\/span>
\u2018The choices (that) we make\u2019<\/p>\n

Vous faites<\/strong><\/span> la conversation
\u2018You do the talking\/make conversation\u2019<\/p>\n

Elles font<\/strong><\/span> des affaires \u00e0 Moscou
\u2018They\u2019re doing business in Moscow\u2019<\/p>\n

While faire<\/em> can mean \u2018to do\u2019 or \u2018to make\u2019 in most situations, it also has many other uses that include weather, quotations, causation and making people do things. Likewise, there are a lot of set expressions that utilize the faire<\/em> conjugation.<\/p>\n

One of the most common uses of the verb faire<\/em> is for describing the weather. When doing so, the verb is always paired with the personal il<\/span> and conjugated for the third person singular.<\/p>\n

Il<\/span> fait<\/strong><\/span> du soleil aujourd\u2019hui
\u2018It\u2019s sunny today\u2019<\/p>\n

Il<\/span> fait<\/strong> <\/span>toujours beau ici
\u2018The weather\u2019s always great here\u2019<\/p>\n

Il<\/span> fait <\/strong><\/span>froid dehors
\u2018It\u2019s cold outside\u2019<\/p>\n

The verb faire can also be used when quoting or reporting what others say. You can often see faire<\/em> in the pass\u00e9 simple<\/em> in books when characters have dialogue.<\/p>\n

Je suis ici, fit<\/strong><\/span>-elle
\u2018I\u2019m here, she said\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

You can also use it to talk about the sounds animals make.<\/p>\n

Le chat fait<\/strong> miaou
\u2018The cat says\/goes<\/span> meow\u2019<\/p>\n

You can also utilize faire<\/em> the same way you do in English when talking about \u2018making\u2019<\/em> or causing someone to do something. For this, the verb faire<\/em><\/span> conjugates normally and the following verb<\/span> will be in the infinitive<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Cette chanson m\u2019a fait<\/strong><\/span> pleurer<\/span>
\u2018This song made<\/span> me cry<\/span>\u2019<\/p>\n

Elle fait<\/strong><\/span> sourire<\/span> le personnel
\u2018She makes<\/span> the staff smile<\/span>\u2019<\/p>\n

Vous le faites<\/strong><\/span> rire<\/span>
\u2018You make<\/span> him laugh<\/span>\u2019<\/p>\n

<\/a>Faire<\/em> Conjugation in the Imperfect Tense<\/h2>\n

While the present tense is good to know, you\u2019ll most likely want to discuss other time periods. And if you want to discuss an ongoing action that has already come to an end, you\u2019ll need l\u2019imparfait<\/em> (the imperfect). You\u2019ll need this in order to talk about continuous events in the past. This form usually translates to \u2018used to\u2019<\/strong> or \u2018was\/were<\/strong>.\u2019 Putting the verb faire<\/em> in the imperfect is particularly useful when you want to talk about how the weather was during an event or an action you used to do regularly.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, in the imparfait<\/em>, the conjugation of faire is very regular compared to its present tense. In the imparfait, faire<\/em> conjugates like most imperfect verbs using fais<\/span>–<\/em> as a base.<\/p>\n

Je faisais<\/strong><\/span> la vaisselle
\u2018I was doing the dishes\u2019<\/p>\n

Qu\u2019est-ce que tu faisais<\/strong><\/span>?
\u2018What were you doing?\u2019<\/p>\n

Il faisait <\/strong><\/span>le lit
\u2018He was making the bed\u2019<\/p>\n

Il faisait <\/strong><\/span>beau
\u2018The weather was great\u2019<\/p>\n

Nous faisions <\/span><\/strong>des progr\u00e8s
\u2018We were making progress\u2019<\/p>\n

Vous faisiez<\/strong><\/span> la conversation
\u2018You were doing the talking \/ making conversation\u2019<\/p>\n

Elles faisaient<\/strong><\/span> des affaires \u00e0 Moscou
\u2018They were doing business in Moscow\u2019<\/p>\n

<\/a>The Future Conjugation of Faire<\/em><\/h2>\n

Now that you can talk about things in the present and the past, let\u2019s get to the future. In order to form the future tense, the faire conjugation uses the verb stem fer-<\/strong> and adds on the regular endings<\/span>. The future tense of faire actually looks identical to the future tense of \u00eatre<\/a> if you swap out the s- at the beginning for f-.<\/p>\n

Je fer<\/span>ai<\/strong><\/span> la vaisselle
\u2018I will do the dishes\u2019<\/p>\n

Qu\u2019est-ce que tu feras<\/span><\/strong>?
\u2018What will you do?\u2019<\/p>\n

Elle fera<\/span><\/strong> une erreur
\u2018She will make a mistake\u2019<\/p>\n

Il fera <\/span><\/strong>le lit
\u2018He will make the bed\u2019<\/p>\n

Nous ferons<\/span><\/strong> des progr\u00e8s
\u2018We will make progress\u2019<\/p>\n

Vous ferez <\/span><\/strong>la conversation
\u2018You will do the talking \/ make conversation\u2019<\/p>\n

Elles feront<\/span><\/strong> des affaires \u00e0 Moscou
\u2018They will do business in Moscow\u2019<\/p>\n

<\/a>The Verb Faire<\/em> in the Conditional Form<\/h2>\n

When you want to talk about what would be<\/em>, French uses a different verb form called le conditionnel <\/em>(the conditional). This often comes along with the word si<\/em> (if), but not always. For the conditional form you use the same fer-<\/strong> as the future and simply affix the regular conditional endings. These endings<\/span> are actually the same as the endings for l\u2019imparfait<\/strong>, but attached to a different verb stem<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Je ferais<\/span><\/strong> la vaisselle si…
\u2018I would do the washing if…\u2019<\/p>\n

Qu\u2019est-ce que tu ferais <\/span><\/strong>?
\u2018What would you do?\u2019<\/p>\n

Elle ferait<\/span><\/strong> une erreur
\u2018She would make a mistake\u2019<\/p>\n

Il ferait<\/span> <\/strong>le lit si…
\u2018He will make the bed if…\u2019<\/p>\n

Nous ferions<\/span><\/strong> des progr\u00e8s
\u2018We would make progress\u2019<\/p>\n

Vous feriez <\/span><\/strong>la conversation
\u2018You would do the talking\/make conversation\u2019<\/p>\n

Elles feraient<\/span><\/strong> des affaires \u00e0 Moscou si…
\u2018They would do business in Moscow if…\u2019<\/p>\n

<\/a>The Compound Tenses of Faire<\/em><\/h2>\n

So far, we\u2019ve only gone over the four simple tenses of the faire<\/em> conjugation. For each of these, the verb stands by itself. However, there are several other tenses that use an auxiliary verb\/helping verb to make another tense. We\u2019ll go over each one in detail.<\/p>\n

<\/a>The Faire<\/em> Conjugation in Pass\u00e9 Compos\u00e9<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The most important compound tense in French is the pass\u00e9 compos\u00e9.<\/em> This is used to talk about past events, the same way that English uses the simple past (e.g. he went,<\/span> you said<\/span>, they came<\/span>) These are normally events that happened one time. The pass\u00e9 compos\u00e9<\/em> of the verb faire<\/em> is conjugated using the auxiliary verb avoir<\/span> followed by the past participle of faire<\/em> \u2013\u00a0fait<\/em>. For the compound tenses, the auxiliary verb<\/span> conjugates, but the verb faire<\/em> does not.<\/p>\n

J\u2019ai<\/span> fait<\/span> la vaiselle
I did the dishes<\/p>\n

Qu\u2019est-ce que tu as<\/span> fait<\/span>?
What did you do?<\/p>\n

Il a<\/span> fait<\/span> le lit
He made the bed<\/p>\n

Elle a<\/span> fait<\/span> une erreur
She made a mistake<\/p>\n

Nous avons<\/span> fait<\/span> des progr\u00e8s
We made progress<\/p>\n

Vous avez<\/span> fait<\/span> la conversation
You made conversation<\/p>\n

Elles ont<\/span> fait<\/span> des affaires \u00e0 Moscou
They did business in Moscow<\/p>\n

<\/a>The Faire<\/em> Conjugation with le Plus-Que-Parfait<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Using the pass\u00e9 compos\u00e9<\/em> lets people talk about events that happened in the recent past. However, the French language has another tense to talk about events in the more distant past. This form is known as le plus-que-parfait, <\/em>which is sometimes also called the pluperfect<\/span>.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re not a huge grammatical nerd, don\u2019t worry. We\u2019ll lay out exactly what the pluperfect actually is. This tense refers to an event that happened in a more distant past. In English if you talk about something in the past and need to refer to something happening before that, then you use the pluperfect. Normally this includes the verb had<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I was cycling<\/span> to the cafe even though I had <\/strong>already drunk <\/strong>two espressos.<\/p>\n

In this sentence, was cycling<\/span> refers to the near past, while had drunk<\/strong> refers to something even earlier than the act of cycling. Generally, you can think of le plus-que-parfait<\/em> as the tense that uses the verb had<\/strong>. In order to make the pluperfect in French, you just add the past participle fait<\/span> to the helping verb avoir conjugated in the imperfect. Some forms of it with the verb faire<\/em> are below.<\/p>\n

J\u2019avais<\/span> fait<\/span> la vaiselle
I had<\/span> done the washing<\/p>\n

Qu\u2019est-ce que tu avais<\/span> fait ?<\/span><\/span>
What had<\/span> you done?<\/p>\n

Il avait<\/span> fait<\/span> le lit
He had<\/span> made the bed<\/p>\n

Elle avait<\/span> fait<\/span> une erreur
She had<\/span> made a mistake<\/p>\n

Nous avions<\/span> fait<\/span> des progr\u00e8s
We had<\/span> made progress<\/p>\n

Vous aviez<\/span> fait<\/span> la conversation
You had<\/span> made conversation<\/p>\n

Elles avaient<\/span> fait<\/span> des affaires \u00e0 Moscou
They had<\/span> done business in Moscow<\/p>\n

<\/a>Faire<\/em> in The Near Future<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In addition to le futur simple<\/em> (the simple future), French also uses a compound future tense with the verb aller<\/span> (to go) and the infinitive<\/span>. This is used to discuss events in the near future and translates to \u2018going to\u2019 in English. As with the pass\u00e9 compos\u00e9<\/em> and le plus-que-parfait<\/em>, only the helping verb<\/span> conjugates. Instead of using a participle though, the verb faire<\/em> stays in the infinitive<\/span>.<\/p>\n