French causatives: faire and se faire

Level B2

French causatives: faire and se faire

French uses faire + infinitive when someone causes or arranges an action, whether or not they do it themselves. English speakers can use “make,” “have,” or “get” for related meanings, but French builds them with faire and places the people and things according to French grammar. Se faire also describes services received and events that happen to someone.

Key terms: faire + infinitive and se faire

Use faire + infinitive to cause or arrange an action

faire + infinitif

Place the action, its object, and its performer

When the infinitive has no direct object of its own, its performer can follow it without a preposition: “Le retard a fait attendre tout le monde dehors.” Here, tout le monde identifies the people who wait; it functions as the direct object in the causative construction, not as the object of attendre.

When the infinitive already has a direct object, the performer can be introduced with à: “J’ai fait lire le rapport à mon collègue.” The report is what gets read; the colleague does the reading. English “I had my colleague read the report” puts the performer before “read,” so do not copy that order into French.

Put object pronouns before the auxiliary or infinitive faire

Object pronouns belonging to the causative construction go before faire when it is conjugated in a simple tense, and before its auxiliary in a compound tense: “Je les lui ai fait lire avant la réunion.” Les refers to the texts being read, and lui identifies the person who reads them.

When faire itself is an infinitive after another verb, the pronouns go immediately before faire: “Je vais me les faire livrer demain.” Here, me means the delivery is to me, while les refers to the items being delivered. Thus the pronouns precede ai in the first example and faire, not vais, in the second. Their order follows French clitic rules: les lui, but me les.

Use se faire for a service received

se faire + infinitif

Use se faire for an unwanted event

Se faire + infinitive can describe something that happens to the subject, including an adverse event: “Ils se sont fait voler leurs sacs dans le train.” This means their bags were stolen on the train; it does not imply that they arranged the theft. English “have something done” can suggest a service someone ordered, but the context and infinitive tell you whether se faire describes a service or an event that happened to someone.

Keep fait unchanged before an infinitive

When faire is followed by an infinitive in this causative construction, its past participle stays fait, even if a feminine or plural object pronoun comes before it: “Je les lui ai fait lire avant la réunion.” It is still fait in “Elle s’est fait couper les cheveux” and “Ils se sont fait voler leurs sacs.” English does not show this French agreement rule, so do not change fait to faite or faits to match the person or thing affected.

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