6.3 The Verb Faire

The verb faire (to do or to make) is an irregular verb, used both literally, meaning to do or to make, and in many expressions. For example, as you have just learned, for certain weather expressions we use faire. When we talk about sports, we can also use faire:

Tiger Woods fait du golf. Rafael Nadal fait du tennis.

Faire as a “substitute” verb

You can use the verb faire to ask a question: Qu’est-ce que vous faites? (“What are you doing?”). Usually you will reply not with the verb faire itself, but with the verb that describes the activity you are doing.

Q: Charles, que fais-tu? (Charles, what are you doing?)

R: Je mange un sandwich. (I’m eating a sandwich.)

Select the play button to hear an example.

Conjugation of Faire

The Singular and Plural Forms of the Verb Faire
Person French English
1st person singular Je fais I do/make
2nd person singular Tu fais You do/make
3rd Person singular Il/elle/on fait He/she does/makes
1st person plural Nous faisons We do/make
2nd person plural Vous faites You do/make (formal or plural)
3rd person plural Ils/elles font They make

Important Notes

  • The singular forms are all pronounced the same.
  • The vous form does not finish in “ez“.

Exercise 4: Faire

Fill in the Blanks

Exercise 5: Qu’est-ce que vous faites ?

Fill in the Blanks

This section includes content derived from Liberté, originally released under CC BY-NC-SA.

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Introduction to French (2nd ed.) Copyright © 2017 by Rita Palacios and Edited by Michelle Schwartz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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