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French-English translation of faire

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For translation hints, see this article: The keyword 'faire' in French
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1 faire Verb, transitive   Pronounce

(a) (=create in a general way) to make a car, wine, a noise, a mistake, a declaration, a film, a meal, a coffee, a cake, a gesture; faire beaucoup de bruit to make a lot of noise; faites moins de bruit, s'il vous plaît keep the noise down, please

(b) more specific verbs sometimes used in English to build a house, nest, wall, bake a cake, write, produce a book, speech, essay, make, draw up a list, make out, write a cheque, give a lecture, lesson; to prepare a meal, salad

(c) to do a deed, work; qu'est-ce que tu fais? what are you doing?

(d) (Sport) to play tennis, rugby, a match

(e) to play a role; to play, act innocent, stupid; ~ le mort to play dead; ~ le sourd/le timide to pretend to be deaf/shy; ~ le malade to feign illness; ~ l'innocent/la bête to play or act the innocent/the fool

(f) (School) to do, take a subject, an exam

(g) (Med) to have, suffer from stress, run up a temperature, get, come down with an illness

(h) to pay a visit, compliments; to sell, deal in produce, grow, produce crops


Present
je fais, tu fais, il/elle fait, nous faisons, vous faites, ils/elles font
Imperfect
je faisais, tu faisais, il/elle faisait, nous faisions, vous faisiez, ils/elles faisaient
Future
je ferai, tu feras, il/elle fera, nous ferons, vous ferez, ils/elles feront
Perfect
j' ai fait, tu as fait, il/elle a fait, nous avons fait, vous avez fait, ils/elles ont fait
Present subjunctive
je fasse, tu fasses, il/elle fasse, nous fassions, vous fassiez, ils/elles fassent

Click here to see the full conjugation

2 faire Verb, intransitive

(a) to act; ~ vite to act quickly

(b) to seem, feel; (physically) to look; ~ jeune to look young; il a 20 ans mais il fait plus he's 20 but he looks older; ça fait bizarre it feels odd (or) strange; (physically) it looks odd (or) strange; ça fait drôle de te revoir it feels strange seeing you again

(c) (Infml: with names of professions) to be; ~ prof to be a teacher

(d) (especially in the conditional) to make, potentially be, have the makings of a good teacher etc; il ferait un bon prof he'd make (or) be a good teacher, he has the makings of a good teacher

3 faire Verb, transitive

(a) ~ faire qn to make sb do; ~ faire qch à qn to make sb do sth, have sb do sth; ~ faire qch to have sth done; ~ entrer/sortir qn to let sb in/out; ~ venir qn to send for sb; ~ écouter une cassette à qn to play sb a cassette; ~ presser un disque/CD to have a record/CD pressed; se ~ couper les cheveux to have one's hair cut

4 faire Verb

(a) il fait jour/nuit/clair/sombre/soleil it is daylight/dark/light/dull/sunny; il fait du vent/du soleil/du brouillard it is windy/sunny/foggy; il fait un temps mauvais/merveilleux it is bad/marvellous weather; (Infml) il fait faim/soif it's hungry/thirsty weather

5 se faire Verb, pronominal

(a) to be done; to become, get old, ripe; to make oneself beautiful; se ~ mal/peur to hurt/frighten oneself; se ~ violence to force oneself; se ~ les ongles to do one's nails; se ~ une idée to get some or an idea; se ~ des idées to imagine things, get ideas; s'en ~ to worry; se ~ à to get used to; se ~ attraper/laver/tuer to get (oneself) told off/cleaned/killed; (Slang) aller se ~ voir to sod off; (Vulg) aller se ~ foutre, aller se ~ to fuck off (Vulg), piss off (Vulg), bugger off (Vulg)

(b) (Slang) to do an activity, go to a restaurant etc; tu m'appelles mardi, on peut se ~ quelque chose ring me on Tuesday and we can do something (neutral); se ~ un macdo to have a McDonalds (Infml)

(c) (Vulg) to get off with, shag somebody; elle s'est fait le serveur she got off with the waiter

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