The Best Tips to Conjugate the French Verb Faire

As an irregular verb, faire doesn’t follow a strict pattern, so it’s mandatory to memorize and practice conjugating it. It’s a commonly used verb that you will read and hear often.

Here, we offer guidance on how to conjugate faire in the most common French verb tenses. Following are lists of conjugations for faire in present simple tense and other tenses.

Faire Conjugation: Present Simple Tense

Example:
Je fais le ménage pendant mon temps libre. (I do chores in my spare time.)

Faire Conjugation: Perfect Tense

It’s important to remember that avoir is an auxiliary verb used with faire.

Example:
Le charpentier a fait une table. (The carpenter made a table.)

Faire Conjugation: Imperfect Tense

Example:
En vacances, quand ils allaient en famille, ils faisaient des tables en bois pour s’amuser. Désormais quand ils y vont avec des amis, ils préfèrent cuisiner pour s’amuser. (When they used to go on vacation as a family, they would make wooden tables for fun. Nowadays when they go with friends, they prefer to cook for fun.)

Faire Conjugation: Future Simple Tense

Example:
Que ferez-vous lorsque vous aurez un emploi ? (What will you do when you have an job?)

Faire Conjugation: Conditional Tense

Example:
Je ne ferais des affaires que si cela me permettait de réaliser des profits élevés. (I would only do business if it made me earn high profits.)

Review what you’ve learned so far with the video below on conjugating the French verb faire:

Faire Conjugation: Subjunctive Mood

Example:
Je veux qu’il fasse ses propres devoirs à partir de maintenant. (I want him to do his own duties from now on.)

Faire: Imperative Forms

Uses for Faire

Faire is important when learning French since you can use it instead of other verbs that you might not know yet. For instance, it’s fine to use faire for “create” or “make,” and as you learn more French and your vocabulary increases, you can replace it with verbs such as creer, inventer, fabriquer and others.

There are some cases though where you discover that faire is just the right fit in certain fixed expressions. There will be no alternative. Below are some common examples.

Phrasal Verbs With Faire

There are numerous expressions and verbs that use faire. Here are some of the most common phrasal verbs with faire that you might come across.

Other Ways to Use Faire

Tell Time

Faire can be used to show that a certain amount of time has passed: Cela fait dix minutes qu’elle attend. In English, it’s not exactly right to say, “That makes ten minutes since she’s been waiting,” but you get the idea!

Give Dimensions

Faire can be used to talk about measurements.

Example :
Cette salle fait 80 mètres carrés. (This room is 80 square meters.)

“Equals” in Mathematics

Example:
4 et 4 font 8.

Using faire this way is more common than the alternative: 2 plus 2 égal 4.

Talk About the Weather

Example:
Quel temps fait-il aujourd’hui ? (How is the weather today?)
Il pleut. (It’s raining.)
C’est beau quand il fait beau. (It’s beautiful when it’s sunny.)

Make Someone Do Something or Have Something Done

Example :
Ils lui ont fait faire tout leur travail. (They made her do all their duties.)
Il a fait réparer le véhicule. (He had the vehicle repaired.)

Cooking Expressions

Example:
Faire bouillir l’eau. (Boil the water.)
Faire fondre le beurre. (Melt the butter.)

Using Faire as a Noun

In some instances, you’ll find that faire works as a noun instead of a verb. The more popular examples (think savoir-faire and laissez-faire) have infiltrated other languages and are common in many countries.

Points to Remember

While faire does mean to do or to make, and it can be used to talk about making other people do something, it cannot be used with feelings. When we talk about making other people feel emotions, we use rendre: Elle le rend heureux. Cela me rend triste.

Now that you’ve learned a few different meanings for faire and some common conjugations, using it gets simpler with practice. Start watching French TV shows, films, and YouTube clips, and you’ll hear the word everywhere. These activities help you acquire more knowledge in French before you know it. You can also get further help and guidance from our French tutors.

Quiz: Test your knowledge of French Faire!

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French Faire

1 / 7

Les enfants (fait / faites / faisez / font) la sieste.

English: The children are taking a nap.

fait

faites

faisez

font

2 / 7

Julien (fait / a fait / faire) la lessive hier soir 

English: Julien did the laundry yesterday

fait

a fait

faire

3 / 7

“Ma mère lui fait confiance.” means

my mother does trust.

My mother trusts him.

My trust is for my mother.

4 / 7

“Je faisais la queue, comme tout le monde !” means

I was doing it, like everyone else!

I was the queue, like everyone else!

I was waiting in line, like everyone else!

5 / 7

“Arrête, tu fais mal à ton frère.” means

Stop, you’re doing your brother wrong.

Stop, you’re hurting your brother.

Stop, your brother is feeling wrong.

6 / 7

Je vous laisse faire connaissance.” means

I let you know them

I let you know each other

I let you guess if you know each other

7 / 7

“Nous ferons semblant de dormir.” means

We pretend to sleep

We will sleep later.

We will let sleep come to us.

We will pretend to sleep

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