Chapitre Trois
Le verbe : Faire
Exercice 3.9 - 3.10
Le verbe : faire
faire—to do/to make
| Singular | Plural | |
| 1st person | je fais | nous faisons |
| 2nd person | tu fais | vous faites |
| 3rd person | il fait
elle fait on fait |
ils font
elles font |
The verb faire is a word commonly used in questions to ask what people do, what they are up to, or what they are making. When you answer the question, just like in English, you can respond back with anything and you don’t have to use faire.
Que fais-tu ? Je regarde un match à la télé.
Qu’est-ce que tu veux faire ? Je veux jouer de la guitare.
However, there are lots of phrases in French that require faire as a part of their construction. Think of this like “I’m doing my homework” or “He’s doing a workout.” Below is an introductory list of common expressions that require faire as the verb in the expression.
Exercice 3.9
Rappelle-toi : the preposition de changes based on the gender and number of the noun that follows it except when used with negation.
faire du (masculine singular)
faire de la (feminine singular)
faire de l’ (singular + vowel/h)
faire des (plural)
pas de (singular & plural)
Team Sports, Individual Sports, and Playing Instruments
As we have seen, when we are talking about individual sports, we tend to use faire de (and the variations of de): faire du ski, faire du yoga, faire de l’équitation, faire du sport, faire du bowling, etc.
When we talk about team sports, we generally use jouer à (and the variations of à):
*while these are not team sports they are played against a partner
Instead of using faire de or jouer à as we have seen with sports, when we talk about playing instruments in French, we use jouer de (and its variations):
Audio 3.b
what are you doing
I watch/I'm watching
a game/a match
on TV
what do
you want
to do
I want
to play the guitar
climate
it's nice/beautiful
it's cold
it's cool
it's gray outside
it's sunny
It's windy
it's not nice outside
sports
to work out
to do track and field
to ski/snowboard
to ride a bike
to play a game/match of...
to swim
to climb
daily life
to handle business
to make a reservation
to major in...
to do homework
to do chores
to do the dishes
to save money
to do housework
to take a walk
to make the bed
to do theater
to cook
to run errands
to go shopping
remember
to play basketball
to play soccer
to play football
to play ice hockey
to play volleyball
to play softball
to play golf
to play tennis
to play on a bowling team
to play bocce ball
to play croquet
to play cards
to play chess
to play checkers
to play
piano
violin
electric/classic guitar
bass guitar
drums
trumpet
saxophone, sax
trombone
double bass
cello
clarinet
flute
recorder
French horn
harp
harmonica
instruments
an instrument
