Don’t you have those days where you get pretty lazy, and would rather have your work done for you? How would you express that in French? We use the faire causatif . Its construction involves  the subject having something done by someone else or a group of people.  To form it, use the verb faire, and combine it with the infinitive.

 

For example:

• Ma maman fait prendre sa photo par un professionnel. – My mom has her photo taken by a professional.

 

Here, the subject is the the mother. She’s not the one taking her picture, but instead has someone else do it for her. Although the subject is not doing the actual work, the verb faire is still agrees with it. The infinitive describes what is being done following faire describes what is being done.

 

Note, that the noun following the infinitive can be either its direct object or its subject.  There are two rules for these:

• If a verb in the infinitive takes a direct object, the noun following it must be a direct object. These are called transitive verbs. In the first example, the verb prendre requires a direct object. In this case, her photo is the direct object.

• If a verb in the infinitive doesn’t require a direct object, the noun following it is its subject. These are called intransitive verbs. Below is an example:

• Il fait tomber la fille pour un jeu. – He has the girl fall for a game.

The infinitive verb tomber doesn’t require a direct object, so the subject “la fille” is the subject of that infinitive.

Whether the noun following the infinitive is a direct object of its subject, both can easily be replaced by a direct object pronoun. Let’s use the previous examples to demonstrate how:

• Ma maman a fait prendre son photo par un professionnel. – My mom had her photo taken by a professional.  

• Ma maman l’a fait prendre – She had it taken.

• Il a fait tomber la fille pour un jeu. – He had the girl fall for a game.

• Il la fait tomber pour un jeu. – He has her fall for a game.

Notice how the word par is in the “Ma maman” sentence. We can use either par or à to indicate who is actually performing the action so the message is clear.

For example:

• Ma maman fait prendre sa photo à un professionnel.

 

Although using à clarifies things for us, it can also be confusing because(1) it might leave the sentence ambiguous and (2) it’s sometimes followed by an indirect object. If that’s the case, use par. Below are examples of both the ambiguous and clarified versions of the same sentence:

• Angelique fait faire ses devoirs à sa soeur.

This sentence could mean that Angelique makes her sister do her homework, or that she has her homework done by her sister. Let’s look at how this sentence looks like when we use par:

• Angelique fait faire ses devoirs par sa soeur,

Here, we clearly know that Angelique has her homework done by her sister.

Please also note that faire causatif is not restricted to just direct object pronouns, direct objects, and the subjects following the infinitive. It’s also applicable to indirect object, indirect object pronouns, and y.

In the case that we use their faire causatif, and the infinitive used is a transitive verb already having a direct object, use an indirect object pronoun (i.e. lui or leur) to replace the subject of the infinitive.

For example:

• J’ai fait prendre ma robe à ma soeur. – I made my sister take my dress.
• Je lui ai fait prendre ma robe. – I made her take my dress.

Note the difference in usage and meaning between an indirect object pronoun and a direct object pronoun under the faire causatif construction.

• Je lui ai fait prendre ma robe – I made her take my dress
• Je l’ai fait prendre. – I made her take. 

 

Now for one last discussion about faire causatif! I know it can get pretty confusing sometimes, but don’t worry! With practice, everything will become easier. So we now that faire makes “to make,” but how do you account for the verb rendre, which also means “to make” ? To separate the two, know that both of these verbs are used in different contexts.

With faire, we use it to express what something or someone else caused something to happen. It’s commonly used in a number of expressions that we’ve learned in the past (that is, when we were all just learning French). 

For example:

• Il a fait manger le brocoli par son frère – He had his brother eat his broccoli. 
• Mon prof me fais rire beaucoup! – My teacher makes me laugh a lot! 

Notice how there is always a verb after the conjugated form of faire in both sentences. This is what makes distinguishing between faire and rendre easier.

With rendre, we use it when referring to how someone made someone else feel (emotions), rendering, or giving back. Contrary to faire, the conjugated form of rendre is followed by an adjective, rather than a verb.

For example:

• Tu me rend malade! – You make me sick!
• Le restaurant nous rendons un bon service.  – The restaurant rendered us good service.