Grammaire 1: faire

The verb faire can translate into English in different ways depending on the context. It can mean: “to do”; “to make”; “to be” (weather); “to equal” (math); “to go”, and more.

Here is how we conjugate faire in the present tense:

(If you prefer, you can sing to faire.)

Notes:

(a) Most of the time faire means either “to do” or “to make”. Thus, the question Qu’est-ce que tu fais ? could mean “What do you do?” or “What do you make?” depending on the context.

Faire can also be used to talk about what someone is doing now or soon, and what work people do in general. For example:

— Qu’est-ce que tu fais ce week-end ? (What are you doing this week-end?)
— Je travaille au restaurant. (I am working at the restaurant.)

— Que fait ta mère ? (What does your mother do?)
— Elle est ingénieure. (She’s an engineer.)

(b) Faire is said in many expressions that name specific activities like before (faire du ski, faire une promenade, faire du camping, etc.):

On fait du kayak à Deep Cove. (We kayak at Deep Cove.)

Nous faisons la sieste à 2h. (We take a nap at 2 o’clock.)

Est-ce que vous faites des promenades le week-end? (Do you go for walk on the weekend?)

  *Familiarize yourself with the list of common and useful expressions with faire (such as to hike, to party or to take a nap) in the vocabulary section.

(c) The verb faire is also used to talk about the weather.

— Quel temps fait-il ? (What’s the weather like?)
— Il fait chaud ! (It’s hot!)

For an English speaker, the French equivalent of How’s the weather? looks like you’re saying What weather is it doing, making? A word by word translation does not work here, so you need to memorize the entire expression. Carefully review and learn the weather expressions in the vocabulary section.

There are three ways to respond to the question Quel temps fait-il ? and they all begin with the impersonal subject pronoun Il (which refers to no one).

Il fait… [adjectif]

Il y a…[nom]

Il… [verbe]