The verb faire in the present tense
Key points
- The verb faire means to make or do.
- Faire is also used in most weather expressions: to say It's sunny in French you say Il fait du soleil.
One of the commonest of all irregular verbs in French is faire meaning to make or to do. The present tense of faire conjugates like this:
| faire to make / do | ||
|---|---|---|
| je | fais | |
| tu | fais | |
| il / elle | fait | |
| nous | faisons | |
| vous | faites | |
| ils / elles | font | |
Note
It's important to remember that the vous form of faire is vous faites and not vous faisez.
Faire is used when you want to say you're making or doing something:
Je fais mes devoirs à cinq heures
I do my homework at five o'clock
Tu fais peu d’erreurs
You don't make many mistakes
Elle fait ses courses le samedi matin
She does her shopping on Saturday mornings
Que faites-vous demain?
What are you doing tomorrow?
Le mercredi après-midi ils font du sport
On Wednesday afternoons they play sport
Elles font de l’équitation
They do horse riding
You also use faire when when you're talking about the weather:
Quel temps fait-il? Il fait du soleil
What’s the weather like? It's sunny