B2 · Verb + infinitive
faire and laisser + infinitive
make, have and get are all one verb here.
At a glance
- Remember
- Nothing comes between faire and the infinitive.
- Form
- je fais réparer la voitureto have something done
- Signal words
- faire faire
- laisser faire
- se faire
- faire venir
- laisser tomber
- faire savoir
- Trap
- Wrong:Je fais le garagiste réparer la voiture.Right:Je fais réparer la voiture au garagiste.
Your turn
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The form
How the forms are built
Each row gives the meaning first, then the form in French. The colours show what changes from one form to the next.
stem (regular) stem (irregular) person ending
| to have something done | je fais réparer la voiture |
| with the person doing it | je fais réparer la voiture au garagiste |
| with a pronoun | je la fais réparer |
| to let | je le laisse dormir |
| to have something done to oneself | elle se fait couper les cheveux |
| I have the bike repaired | je fais réparer le vélo |
| you have the bike repaired | tu fais réparer le vélo |
| he, she has the bike repaired | il, elle fait réparer le vélo |
| we have the bike repaired | nous faisons réparer le vélo |
| you have the bike repaired (plural, polite) | vous faites réparer le vélo |
| they have the bike repaired | ils, elles font réparer le vélo |
| I let them sleep | je les laisse dormir |
| you let them sleep | tu les laisses dormir |
| he, she lets them sleep | il, elle les laisse dormir |
| we let them sleep | nous les laissons dormir |
| you let them sleep (plural, polite) | vous les laissez dormir |
| they let them sleep | ils, elles les laissent dormir |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is about
The infinitive follows faire immediately.
Je fais réparer la voiture.I am having the car repaired.
The person doing it is attached with à or par.
Elle fait corriger le texte par un collègue.She is having the text corrected by a colleague.
Pronouns stand before faire, not before the infinitive.
Je la fais réparer demain.I am having it repaired tomorrow.
se faire plus an infinitive is to have something happen to you.
Elle s’est fait couper les cheveux.She had her hair cut.
Example sentences
Nous avons fait venir un technicien.We had a technician come out.
Ne le laisse pas partir seul.Do not let him go on his own.
Il s’est fait voler son vélo.He had his bicycle stolen.
Faites-moi savoir si ça change.Let me know if that changes.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
English puts the doer between the two verbs — I made the mechanic repair it — and French cannot. Nothing at all comes between faire and the infinitive: the doer waits until afterwards and arrives through à or par. And with se faire the participle stays flat: elle s'est fait couper les cheveux, not faite.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
Faire plus an infinitive means that you have something done rather than doing it: je fais réparer la voiture — I am having the car repaired. English splits this three ways — make somebody do, have something done, get something done — and French has one verb for all of it.
The split matters because English changes the shape of the second verb each time: make him wait keeps the bare infinitive, have the car repaired switches to a past participle. French never switches: after faire the verb is always an active infinitive, however passive the meaning. Je fais réparer la voiture, never je fais réparée.
Laisser plus an infinitive is to let or not prevent: je le laisse dormir — I let him sleep. The word order is the hard part: the infinitive follows faire *immediately*, and everything else comes after. Je fais réparer la voiture au garagiste, not je fais le garagiste réparer, which is the English order exactly.
Pronouns stand in front of faire, not in front of the infinitive: je la fais réparer. With two of them, the doer becomes the indirect one: je la lui fais réparer.
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The verbs on this page, in every form: faire · être · réparer · avoir · changer · laisser · venir · partir