Practice FrenchB2
Causative with faire
At B2, French uses faire + infinitive to say that someone causes, has, or arranges for an action to happen.
Main patterns
- faire + infinitive: Je fais réparer ma voiture. — I have my car repaired.
- The person who does the action can be introduced with à: Je fais écrire le message à Paul.
- In the past, se faire + infinitive is common for things done to the subject: Je me suis fait couper les cheveux.
Typical meanings
- have something done
- make someone do something
- arrange for an action to happen
Watch out
Do not translate faire word for word as simply "do". In this structure, it often means causing or arranging, not performing the action yourself.
Try three examples
Example 1
Choose the sentence that correctly expresses causative faire.
- Nous faisons nettoyer la cuisine.
- Nous nettoyons faire la cuisine.
- Nous faisons la cuisine nettoyer.
- Nous nettoyer faisons la cuisine.
Show answer
Nous faisons nettoyer la cuisine.
We have the kitchen cleaned.
Example 2
A professional arrangement: *Nous faisons ___ les billets à l'agence.*
Nous faisons ___ les billets à l'agence.
Show answer
réserver
We have the tickets reserved at the agency.
Example 3
*Je fais ___ ma voiture.*
Je fais ___ ma voiture.
Show answer
réparer
I have my car repaired.
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