Learn how to use the French verb faire
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Jason: A Special French Gift. C’est Jason. Jason here! |
| Ingrid: Bonjour à tous, Ingrid here! |
| Jason: In this lesson, you’re going to learn how to use another very important French verb : faire, which means “to do”. |
| Ingrid: Yes Jason, by learning the usage of this expression Je fais, which is the equivalent of “I do” you will see that the verb faire” can mean many things as “to make”, “to organize” or even “to complete”. |
| Jason: After this lesson, you will be able to say that you are doing something, that you are preparing something or that you are letting someone do something. So Ingrid, what about our conversation? |
| Ingrid: Our dialog will take place in the supermarket. The fist character, Sylvie, has just bought a present and asks the sales-assistant to wrap a gift. You will see that she is quite demanding concerning the way she wants the gift wrapped! |
| Jason: Yes and Ingrid, as it is a conversation between a client and a sales-assistant, they will use formal French here. Let’s listen to the conversation! |
| DIALOGUE |
| 1st time: natural native speed: |
| (In a super market) |
| Sylvie: Pouvez-vous faire un paquet cadeau s'il vous plait? Sales assistant: Oui, si vous voulez. Voulez-vous que je fasse un nœud? Sylvie: D'accord mais attention, je ne voudrais surtout pas que ca fasse trop! |
| Sales assistant: Ne vous inquiétez pas, j’ai fait une formation la semaine dernière donc je sais tout sur les paquets cadeaux maintenant! |
| Sylvie: Très bien, dans ce cas, je vous laisse faire! |
| (1 time slowly) |
| (In a super market) |
| Sylvie: Pouvez-vous faire un paquet cadeau s'il vous plait? Sales assistant: Oui, si vous voulez. Voulez-vous que je fasse un nœud? Sylvie: D'accord mais attention, je ne voudrais surtout pas que ca fasse trop! |
| Sales assistant: Ne vous inquiétez pas, j’ai fait une formation la semaine dernière donc je sais tout sur les paquets cadeaux maintenant ! |
| Sylvie: Très bien, dans ce cas, je vous laisse faire! |
| (1 time natural native speed with the translation) |
| (In a super market) |
| Sylvie: Pouvez-vous faire un paquet cadeau s'il vous plait? |
| Can you do a gift-wrap please? |
| Sales assistant: Oui, si vous voulez. Voulez-vous que je fasse un nœud? |
| Yes, if you want. Do you want me to make a bow? |
| Sylvie: D'accord mais attention, je ne voudrais surtout pas que ca fasse trop ! |
| Okay but be careful, I really don’t want something too garish! |
| Sales assistant: Ne vous inquiétez pas, j’ai fait une formation la semaine dernière donc je sais tout sur les paquets cadeaux maintenant ! |
| Don’t worry, I followed a training last week so I know everything about gift-wrapping now! |
| Sylvie: Très bien, dans ce cas, je vous laisse faire ! |
| Great, so I'll let you do then! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Ingrid: So, Jason, do you often offer gifts to your friends or family? |
| Jason: I try as often as possible! But I can tell you I am not as difficult regarding gift-wrapping! |
| Ingrid: And what about presents you receive? Have you ever sold them if you didn’t like them? |
| Jason: What? Selling presents? This is a strange idea! |
| Ingrid: Yes it used to be but now in France it’s more and more common to re-sell presents that you don’t like or that you already have, especially after Christmas. |
| Jason: Really? But how does it work? |
| Ingrid: Since many websites have specialized in this new market, it is now very simple; you just have to describe and put a picture of your present and publish the ad on the website. |
| Jason: But don't people feel guilty about doing so? |
| Ingrid: Some years ago, it would have sound very ungrateful but today, due to the economic crisis, some French families don’t hesitate anymore and even think it is a clever way to consume! It allows them to earn money without simply throwing the item away. |
| Jason: It’s true it can be convenient just as long as the person who offered you the present is not aware of it! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Okay, so now, let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first expression we shall see is: |
| Next: |
| Paquet cadeau[natural native speed] |
| Meaning “Gift-wrap” |
| Paquet cadeau [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Paquet cadeau [natural native speed] |
| Nœud [natural native speed] |
| Meaning “bow” |
| Nœud [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nœud [natural native speed] |
| Si vous voulez [natural native speed] |
| Meaning “If you want” |
| Si vous voulez [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Si vous voulez [natural native speed] |
| Attention [natural native speed] |
| Meaning “Be careful” |
| Attention [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Attention [natural native speed] |
| En faire trop [natural native speed] |
| Meaning “To overdo” |
| En faire trop [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| En faire trop [natural native speed] |
| Ne vous inquiétez pas [natural native speed] |
| Meaning “Don’t worry” |
| Ne vous inquiétez pas [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ne vous inquiétez pas [natural native speed] |
| Formation [natural native speed] |
| Meaning “Training” |
| Formation [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Formation [natural native speed] |
| Laisser faire [natural native speed] |
| Meaning “to let do” |
| Laisser faire[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laisser faire [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of interesting words and sentences in this lesson. |
| Jason: The first expression is? |
| Ingrid: It is “si vous voulez” which means “if you want” |
| Jason: So this expression is made of 2 main parts. What are these 2 parts Ingrid? |
| Ingrid: First, we have “si” which means “if”. This word is used to introduce a hypothesis, something you're not sure about. The second part of this expression is “vous voulez” which means “you want”. Here, we use the 2nd person plural so that it is a formal form. This makes a suggestion to someone politely. |
| Jason: And what does this expression mean Ingrid? |
| Ingrid: It can help you to introduce politely a suggestion as in “Si vous voulez, nous pouvons aller au parc ensemble” that means “If you want, we can go to the park together” |
| Jason: And is there another meaning in this expression? |
| Ingrid: Yes, “si vous voulez” is also an expression you can use when someone asks you a question and you want to ask yes but with a slight nuance, as in our dialog, we had “yes, if you want” |
| Jason: I get it. So I guess you can say that when you’re okay to do something but above all because you don’t really have the choice, isn’t that right? |
| Ingrid: Exactly! For example, your friend invites you to join him to go to the movie theater so he is asking « Veux-tu aller au cinéma avec moi?” If you answer “Oui, si tu veux” it either means you don’t really want to but you accept, or that you don’t mind going there. |
| Jason: Yes so in both cases, it is not a very spontaneous answer anyway! What about next expression? |
| Ingrid: It is « Ne vous inquiétez pas » which means « Don’t worry » |
| Jason: Can you repeat it slowly please? |
| Ingrid: (slowly) «Ne vous inquiétez pas» |
| Jason: And again, at natural speed? |
| Ingrid: (natural speed) «Ne vous inquiétez pas» |
| Jason: Okay so can you give us some examples in which we can use this expression? |
| Ingrid: “Ne vous inquiétez pas, ca va aller” which means « Don’t worry, everything will be okay » or |
| “Ne vous inquiétez pas si vous n’avez pas de nouvelles de moi » that means « Don't worry if you don’t receive any news from me » |
| Jason: Can you explain a bit more about this expression and its uses? |
| Ingrid: You always use “Ne vous inquiétez pas” when you want to reassure someone. The pattern is in formal form here, that’s to say the 2nd person of plural. |
| Jason: What about the informal form? |
| Ingrid: You just have to use the 2nd person of singular to do it as in “Ne t’inquiètes pas” |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Jason: So our grammar will be: how to say “to do” verb in French |
| Ingrid: Yes, it is a very convenient verb in French, surely even the most important. The translation of “I do something” in French is “je fais” but you will see that the verb “faire” can also replace many other verbs in French. |
| Jason: What is the main meaning of “faire” in French? |
| Ingrid: It first means “to do” as in English, so that you can say “Je fais quelque chose” which means “I do something” |
| Jason: So for example, how could you say that you do your homework everyday? |
| Ingrid: You will say “Je fais mes devoirs” and it is the same pattern “faire + the thing you do” at every persons. For example “Tu fais tes devoirs”, “Il fait ses devoirs”, “Nous faisons nos devoirs”, “Vous faites vos devoirs” or “Ils font leurs devoirs”. |
| Jason: Nice and what about other meanings of this verb “faire”? |
| Ingrid: This verb has so many different uses that we won’t be able to cover all of them here but we will see the most commonly used. You have to know that in casual language, the verb “faire” is the synonym of verbs like “fabriquer” which means “to make”, of the verb “préparer” which is “to prepare/to cook” but also “effectuer” which is “to complete”. |
| Jason: Could you give us example for each of these? |
| Ingrid: For example in our conversation we had “Voulez-vous que je fasse un nœud?” which means “Do you want me to make a bow?” Here the verb “faire” is used to say “to make”, “to create”. |
| Also we heard “J’ai fait une formation” which literally means “I followed a training” here, we use the verb “faire” instead of the verb “suivre” which would be the real verb for “to follow”. |
| Jason: But why do you use this verb faire instead of other ones? |
| Ingrid: Mainly because it is convenient and because now it has entered into the common language. But normally, it’s true that it would be more correct to use each specific verb. |
| Jason: Do you have other examples using verb “faire” instead of another verb? |
| Ingrid: For example you can often hear “J’ai fait un gâteau” which means “I prepared a cake” and we also use “faire” here even if the initial meaning is “I cooked a cake”. Also when talking about an event you can say “Il a fait une super fête” which means “He organized a great party”. |
| Jason: And what about other expressions in our dialog? |
| Ingrid: Yes, we had for example “Je ne veux pas que ca fasse trop”. Here we use the expression « En faire trop » which means « to overdo ». It helps when you want to say that something is “too much”. |
| Finally Sylvie says “Je vous laisse faire” which means “I let you do”. Here we deal with the common expression “laisser quelqu’un faire quelque chose” which means “to let someone do something” |
| Jason: Great! So now you know how to use basic expressions with the verb “faire”! |
| Ingrid: Yes but of course you will notice that this verb is also used in many other expressions. Please have a look at the lesson notes for more details. |
Outro |
| Jason: See you everyone, à bientôt! |
| Ingrid: À bientôt! |
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