I know French conjugation is harder than English conjugation. Some verbs are regular, which is nice but some are irregular, and that’s hard. Or to be positive we could call it a good memory exercise because, yes, you just need to learn them by heart. Sorry!

Here’s what we can do to make this easier, how about we just focus on the crucial irregular verbs for now?

How about just one at a time?

How about faire? Why faire? Because even though it means to do to make we use it for everything, everything. So with only one verb you could master a lot of expressions.

Faire la fête = to party

Mes voisins font la fête tous les samedis soirs = my neighbors party every Saturday evening.

Faire le ménage = to clean, to do the housework

Son appartement est sale parce qu’il ne fait jamais le ménage = His appartement is dirty because he never cleans.

Faire du shopping = to shop

Je ne fais pas de shopping pour éviter d’être tentée. = I don’t shop to avoid being tempted.

Faire la tête = to sulk

Qu’est-ce qui se passe, pourquoi tu fais la tête? = What’s going on why are you sulking?

Faire beau, mauvais, chaud, froid

Il fait beau aujourd’hui mais demain il va faire mauvais! = The weather is good today but it will be bad tomorrow.

Il fait chaud en été et il fait froid en hiver. = It is hot in the summer and it is cold in the winter.

This one is only used with “il”.

Faire la queue = to wait in line

Soyez poli et faîtes la queue s’il vous plaît! = Be polite and wait in line please!

Faire attention = to be careful or to watch out

Fais attention tu vas tomber! = Be careful you’re going to fall!

Faire la grasse matinée = to sleep in

Nous faisons la grasse matinée chaque dimanche.

Faire la bise = I can’t really translate, it’s one way to say hello and goodbye in France

En France, on fait la bise pour dire bonjour et pour dire au revoir. = In France one does kiss kiss to say hello and to say good bye.

Faire la sourde oreille = to turn a deaf ear

Ma mère a essayé de me parler mais j’ai fait la sourde oreille. = My mother tried to talk to me but I turned a deaf ear.

En faire tout un fromage = to make a big deal out of something

Mais pourquoi tu en fais tout un fromage? = But why are you making such a big deal out of it?

Faire un tabac = to be very successful

Ne vous inquiétez pas, vous allez faire un tabac! = Don’t worry, you’ll be very successful!

Faire de la peine à quelqu’un = to cause someone pain, to make someone sad

Il ne s’intéresse pas à moi, ça me fait de la peine. = He doesn’t show any interest in me, it makes me sad.

Faire des économies = to save money

Les étudiantes font des économies pour acheter les livres d’université. = The students are saving money to buy the university books.

 

Et voilà! Here’s a little bonus: click here for full conjugation of FAIRE.

What other expressions with FAIRE do you know?