Everything You Need to Know About Faire Conjugation in French

Understanding verb conjugation in any language is one of the best ways to learn how to properly express yourself, describe situations, and communicate in general. In fact, it’s one of the most important concepts to learn. However, French verb conjugation can be confusing as there are several different moods, tenses, and voices that need to be portrayed depending on the situation. Many of the verbs in French are conjugated using straightforward rules, but there are some irregular ones that need to be memorized. One of the most common of these irregular verbs is faire, which means “to make” or “to do.” To help you master this essential verb, this article will give you everything you need to know about the conjugation of faire in French.

How to Conjugate Faire in French

There are several possibilities to conjugate faire in French, each of which depends on the tense or mood of the sentence. Although the number of possibilities can seem overwhelming, faire is one of the very versatile (and essential) French verbs. The same applies to venir conjugation in French. Take your time when learning French conjugation and make sure you practice regularly to help solidify the different variations.

Faire Conjugated in the Present

Conjugating faire in the present tense is actually the most irregular form of the verb, so it’s a good place to begin. Plus, present tense is one of the most essential tenses for communication, so mastering this first is recommended. You can see the various present tense faire conjugations in the table below.

Some examples of using present tense faire conjugation in a sentence include:

• Je fais la vaisselle — I’m doing the dishes
• Il fait le lit — He makes the bed
• Qu’est-ce que tu fais? — What are you doing?

You can also attach the infinitive verb of faire to the end of a phrase to use it in the present progressive. This describes an activity that’s ongoing in the current moment. It’s combined with different versions of être conjugation and the connector “en train de.” The sentence structure would therefore be: present tense conjugation of être (to be) + en train de + faire

Compound Past Faire Conjugation

The compound past tense is also referred to as the simple past and it’s used to describe something that already happened. You’ll need to use the French auxiliary verb avoir (to have) and the past participle of faire, which is fait. In this situation, the auxiliary verb avoir will be conjugated, but faire is always used in the past participle form. Refer to the table below for a better understanding of this.

Some examples of using compound past tense of faire in a sentence include:

• J’ai fait la vaiselle — I did the dishes
• Il a fait le lit — He made the bed
• Qu’est-ce que tu as fait? — What did you do?

Imperfect French Faire Conjugation

The imperfect tense in French is used to describe ongoing actions or continuous events that happened in the past and have come to an end. This changes the verb translation to “used to” or “was/were.” This version of faire conjugation is fairly regular, which you can see in the table below.

Some examples of imperfect faire conjugation in a sentence include:

• Je faisais la vaisselle — I was doing the dishes
• Il faisait le lit — He was making the bed
• Qu’est-ce que tu faisais? — What were you doing?

Faire Conjugated for Simple Future Use

When you want to talk about things that will happen in the future, you’ll use the simple future faire conjugation. The best way to practice past, present, and future tenses is to match with a native French speaker and talk about your life! To find a like-minded individual with whom you can practice your fluency with, download Tandem today. You can also review the future faire conjugation in French below.

Some examples of simple future faire conjugation in a sentence include:

• Je ferai la vaisselle — I will do the dishes
• Il fera le lit — He will make the bed
• Qu’est-ce que tu feras? — What will you do?

Near Future Faire Conjugation

However, if you plan to speak about something in the near future, you’ll need to use a different conjugation. This is similar to saying “I am going to + verb” in English. In French, you’ll combine the infinitive verb faire with aller conjugation (to go) to form the near future present. You can review this in the table below.

Some examples of near future faire conjugation in a sentence include:

• Je vais faire la vaisselle — I am going to do the dishes
• Il va faire le lit — He is going to make the bed
• Qu’est-ce que tu vas faire? — What are you going to do?

Conditional French Conjugation of Faire

Conditional tenses in French are used when you want to talk about something that might happen. It’s used in the hypothetical sense. In English, this is most closely compared to as “would + verb” as indicated in the table below.

Some examples of using conditional faire conjugation in a sentence include:

• Je ferais la vaisselle si j'avais le temps — I would do the dishes if I had time

• Il ferait son lit s'il le voulait — He would make his bed if he wanted to

• Qu'est-ce que tu ferais si tu étais immortel? i> — What would you do if you were immortal?

Present Subjunctive French Faire Conjugation

The present subjunctive form of faire in French is used to describe uncertain events. This is used with the subjunctive mood, which is commonly used to express possibility, requests, doubt, and uncertainty. Most often, faire comes after the conjunction “que.” Consider these uses in the table below.

Present Subjunctive Faire Conjugation
I	Que je fasse
you (singular)	Que tu fasses
he/she/it	Qu’ils/Elles/On fasse
we	Que nous fassions
you (plural)	Que vous fassiez
they	Qu’ils/Elles fassent

Some examples of using present subjunctive faire conjugation in a sentence include:

• Je veux que je fasse quelque chose la vaisselle — I want to do something about the dishes
• Il demande que vous fassiez le lit — He asks that you make the bed

Understanding Faire Conjugation with Imperatives

Imperatives are used if you want to make a command or express an order. They can be either positive or negative depending on the situation. There are three different forms for imperative faire conjugation, as shown in the tables below.

Positive Imperative Faire Conjugation
you (singular)	tu fais
we	nous faisons
you (plural)	vous faites

Negative Imperative Faire Conjugation
you (singular)	tu ne fais pas
we	nous ne faisons pas
you (plural)	vous ne faites pas

How to Use Faire Conjugation in Idioms

Conjugation of faire in French is also used in several different idiomatic expressions and to describe everyday activities. These can be combined with French adjectives to form even more complex sentences. This means it may not be a direct word-for-word translation, like many sentences in French. Some examples include sports, hobbies, emotions, chores, and even the weather. Explore these uses of faire conjugations below.

• Il fait froid dehors — It’s cold outside
• Il fait du soleil aujourd’hui — It’s sunny today
• Faire du sport — to do sports
• Il fait du sport — He plays sports
• Faire bon accueil — to welcome
• Faire une bêtise — to do something stupid
• Le chat fait miaou — the cat says/goes meow
• Vous le faites rire — You make him laugh

Mastering faire conjugation in French can be tricky, but it’s one of the most important verbs to learn. Since you’ll be using it in many of your sentences, practicing various tenses is a big step towards fluency. Take your time, work on memorization, and apply each form of faire in different conversations. You can practice using one core sentence and changing the form of faire for moods/tenses, like we did in the examples above.

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