B2 · What follows a verb
Having something done, and letting it happen
make, have and get are all one verb here.
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.
Die Form
| 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 |
Die Regeln im Einzelnen
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.
Woran man es erkennt
- faire faire
- laisser faire
- se faire
- faire venir
- laisser tomber
- faire savoir
Beispielsätze
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.
Die typisch deutsche Falle
Aufgepasst
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.
Nothing comes between faire and the infinitive.
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