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French Expressions With Faire
French Expressions With Faire
Need to Know
fluentu.com/blog/french/french-expressions-with-faire/
In French, as in every language, there are certain expressions which crop up time and again.
Don’t go round and round wondering what these expressions mean. This is a sign from
the universe.
If you really want to speak French like a local, you should probably think about committing
these to memory.
Out of all of the expressions out there, the verb faire (to make/to do) is certainly featured
in the most. Used in relation to everyday life, illness, social interactions and the weather,
there’s rarely a conversation that goes by in which you don’t need to use the verb. Getting to
grips with French expressions that use faire, then, can give you a serious boost in the
language. But what exactly does the verb have to do with it?
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Faire is one of the most common verbs
Out of all of the verbs, faire is one of the ones that you’ll use in most forms of conversation.
Describing a whole variety of different activities, it’s normally one that beginners learn fairly
early on, opening up the door to a whole load of useful expressions and sayings. Getting to
know a few less common expressions using faire can really help you in your language
comprehension and will show just how flexible the verb can be.
Pronoun Faire
Je fais
Tu fais
Il/Elle/On fait
Nous faisons
Vous faites
Ils font
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10 Common French Expressions with Faire You Need to Know!
1. Faire la fête
If you’re going out with friends in France or are invited to a French party, it’s likely that you’ll
hear the expression on va faire la fête (we’re going to party). Faire la fête literally means “to
do the party”, although it’s used in a much more colloquial way in French speaking countries.
As with many English language expressions, there’s no direct equivalent in French so in this
case, they use faire to describe an action that they’re going to do or are doing.
2. Faire attention
If you’re ever amongst parents and young children, it’s likely that you’ll hear this expression
being passed around a lot. If someone warns you to fais attention, they’re telling you to
watch out, or to be careful with what you’re doing. Literally translating as “to do attention,”
the expression translates as paying attention, but can be used to express being careful or
taking care when you’re doing something, too. If you want to warn someone to faire
attention to something in particular, you can follow it with à, à la or aux, depending on the
thing you’re describing.
3. Faire le ménage
When you’re first learning French, this is a particularly good expression to remember and use
and is also one of the most common in the language. Faire le ménage literally means “to do
the household” but it’s used to describe doing the housework or the cleaning. Many processes
around the house are also used alongside faire and can be constructed in the same way. Faire
la lessive, for example, means to do the laundry, while faire le repassage translates as to do
the ironing.
C’est pas juste ! Chaque jour, je dois faire le ménage tout seul !
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If you’re in a French-speaking country over the weekend, then it’s expected that you’ll faire la
grasse matinée. Translating literally to “to do the fat morning,” the expression is used when
you want to lay around in in the morning.
While the expression seems very different between French and English, it’s not hard to
understand what it means, once you’re aware of the answer! Having a fat morning might
equate to being lazy or lazing around the house, something that seems lacking in energy. You
might hear French natives using the slang expression faire la grasse mat’, which is used to
express the same thing.
5. Faire la tête
While you might have guessed the literal meaning of this expression, the reality that it
expresses might not be so clear at first. Faire la tête translates to say “to do the head” and
might be easily mistaken for another similar expression, faire la fête. While the latter is used
to describe something positive, however, the former isn’t quite so happy. If you hear this
expression, someone is probably describing being in a bad mood or describing someone else
who’s sulking. If you hear it in relation to yourself, watch out!
6. Faire beau/mauvais
Sometimes, faire is used to describe things in the environment and if you want to understand
the weather, it’s worth paying closer attention to the verb. If someone exclaims that il fait
beau aujourd’hui, they’re probably talking about the good weather that you’re having. The
expressions faire beau or faire mauvais literally translate to say “it makes beautiful” or “it
makes bad,” but are used to express having good or bad weather during the day.
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Faire la sourde oreille means literally “to make a deaf ear” and like its English equivalent—to
turn a deaf ear—isn’t used to describe a real situation. If you fais la sourde oreille, it means
that you’re not listening to someone else’s advice or conversation when they’re trying to get
through to you. As in English countries, doing so is very rude, so be careful not to have this
expression used against you!
Faire de la peine à quelqu’un can be translated as “to do the pain to someone” but it’s used to
describe hurting someone, or making them feel sad. Like its English language equivalent—it
saddens me—the expression is rarely used in colloquial conversation and might be more
commonly found in formal French or French literature. If you do hear this, however, it might
be worth investigating further; French speakers would rarely bring it out if they didn’t mean
it!
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will do to one another when they meet and part.
While it’s common to give two kisses (one on each cheek), some people will go in for three or
four, so it’s worth paying attention to! Failure to do the bise can also result in a French
person believing you to be really rude so it’s always worth using it to say both hello and
goodbye to someone.
Getting to grips with faire and all of its variations will really help you on the road to your
French language goal.
Incorporating a few new expressions into your routine might really freshen up your
conversation and lead to new areas of conversation. Like all other languages, the expressions
native to France vary hugely and showing some understanding of how they work will really
set you apart from other learners.
FluentU has a wide variety of great content, like interviews, documentary excerpts and web
series, as you can see here:
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