faire
French, verb/fɛʁ/
faire is a French verb meaning “to do” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Créer, produire, fabriquer, en parlant de toute œuvre matérielle”.
What does faire mean in English?
verb
- 1
to do
faire la vaisselle
- 2
to make
faire une erreur
- 3
to say (of a person), to go (of an animal or device)
"Je t'aime," fit-il.
- 4
to make (cause someone or something to do something)
Tu me fais rire.
- 5
to act like (something)
Fais pas ton innocent avec moi.
- 6
to be (of the weather or various situations)
Il fait chaud/froid/noir/beau dehors.
- 7
to do, to make (oneself)
Elle se fait les ongles.
- 8
to be, to get (used for a passive action)
se faire piquer
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Créer, produire, fabriquer, en parlant de toute œuvre matérielle. 2. Préparer un repas, le cuisiner. 3. Élaborer, en parlant des œuvres de l’intelligence et de l’imagination. 4. Opérer, effectuer, exécuter, accomplir, réaliser, que ce soit d’ordre physique ou d’ordre moral.
noun: 1. Action ou manière de faire.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of faire
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- faisant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- fait participle past
- fais first-person indicative present
- faisons first-person indicative plural
- faites indicative plural present
- font indicative plural present
- faisais first-person imperfect indicative
- faisait imperfect indicative singular
- faisions first-person imperfect indicative
- faisiez imperfect indicative plural
- faisaient imperfect indicative plural
- fis first-person historic indicative
- fit historic indicative past
- fîmes first-person historic indicative
- fîtes historic indicative past
- firent historic indicative past
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce faire?
- /fɛʁ/
- Quebec /fæɪ̯ʁ/
- \fɛʁ\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to faire
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is faire in French?
faire appears 2,188 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).