How do you say make in French?

It depends on what follows. Faire for producing something (faire un gâteau), rendre before an adjective (rendre quelqu'un heureux), and faire plus an infinitive for causing an action (faire rire quelqu'un). A number of fixed phrases use other verbs entirely.

What's the difference between faire and rendre?

Faire brings something into existence or makes it happen; rendre changes the state of something that already exists. Rendre is always followed by an adjective: le bruit me rend fou, but il fait du bruit.

How do you say make someone do something?

Faire plus the infinitive, with the person after it: faire travailler les élèves, tu me fais rire. If the infinitive already has its own object, the person moves to à: je lui ai fait lire le contrat.

Why is it prendre une décision and not faire une décision?

Because collocations are lexical, not logical. French takes decisions, appointments and risks, exactly as English takes a photo rather than making one. The pairing simply has to be memorised.

Do you use faire or gagner for making money?

Gagner: il gagne bien sa vie, elle gagne trois mille euros par mois. Faire de l'argent is understood but sounds foreign, and for company profits French says réaliser un bénéfice.

French grammar · Intermediate

How to Say Make in French: Faire, Rendre, and the Traps in Between

Written by Camille Laurent, Lead French Curriculum Editor · Reviewed May 2026

English make covers so much ground that no single French verb can follow it. Faire handles producing and doing, rendre handles making someone feel a certain way, faire plus an infinitive handles making someone do something, and a long list of fixed phrases — prendre une décision, gagner de l'argent — uses neither.

Cette musique me rend heureux, mais ce film m'a fait pleurer.

This music makes me happy, but that film made me cry.

What it is

Make in English has drifted a long way from its original sense of building something. It now covers producing, causing, forcing, earning, and reaching a decision. French kept those meanings in separate verbs, so translating make means deciding first which of them you actually mean.

Il fait du pain, ça me rend heureux, et il m'a fait manger trois tartines. — He makes bread, it makes me happy, and he made me eat three slices.

How to spot it

Look at what comes after make. An object alone points to faire; an adjective points to rendre; a verb points to faire plus an infinitive.

Je fais un gâteau. — I'm making a cake. (object)
Ça me rend nerveux. — It makes me nervous. (adjective)
Tu me fais rire. — You make me laugh. (verb)
Il a pris une décision. — He made a decision. (fixed phrase)

That three-way test resolves most sentences. The fixed phrases are the residue, and they have to be learned individually.

To Make Quick Reference

What follows make, and which French verb it needs

English	What follows make	French
to make a cake	a noun	faire un gâteau
to make someone happy	an adjective	rendre quelqu'un heureux
to make someone laugh	a verb	faire rire quelqu'un
to make furniture	a manufactured object	fabriquer des meubles
to make money	an amount earned	gagner de l'argent
to make a decision	a fixed collocation	prendre une décision
to make a mistake	a fixed collocation	faire une erreur
to make friends	a reflexive collocation	se faire des amis

Common To Make Examples in French

Each meaning of make with the verb French actually uses:

Producing Something

Elle fait la cuisine tous les soirs.: She does the cooking every evening.
On fait du café ?: Shall we make some coffee?
Cette usine fabrique des vélos.: This factory makes bicycles.
Il a fait construire une maison.: He had a house built.

Faire covers home cooking and small-scale making. Fabriquer is for manufacturing and appears on labels: fabriqué en France.

Making Someone Feel Something

Ce bruit me rend fou.: That noise is driving me mad.
La nouvelle l'a rendue heureuse.: The news made her happy.
Le voyage nous a rendus malades.: The journey made us ill.
Tu me rends la vie difficile.: You're making my life difficult.

Rendre is followed by an adjective, and that adjective agrees with the person or thing being changed.

Making Someone Do Something

Tu me fais rire.: You make me laugh.
Elle a fait pleurer tout le monde.: She made everyone cry.
Le prof nous a fait recommencer.: The teacher made us start again.
Je vais lui faire comprendre.: I'm going to make him understand.

The infinitive comes straight after faire and the person goes after the infinitive: faire rire les enfants.

Fixed Collocations

Il faut prendre une décision.: A decision has to be made.
Elle gagne bien sa vie.: She makes a good living.
J'ai fait une erreur.: I made a mistake.
Il s'est fait beaucoup d'amis.: He made a lot of friends.

French takes decisions rather than making them, and earns money rather than making it. These pairings are not negotiable.

Choosing Between the Options

Four rules that between them settle almost any sentence containing make.

Faire for Producing and Doing

When make means to produce, prepare, or perform, faire is the default. It also covers a great many activities where English would say do, which is why the two verbs overlap so heavily.

Je fais mes devoirs avant de faire à manger.

I do my homework before making something to eat.

Object with no adjective → faire.

Rendre Before an Adjective

Rendre means to make something become a certain way. It requires an adjective after the object, and faire cannot take its place: ça me fait heureux is not French.

Le café me rend nerveuse.

Coffee makes me jittery.

make + adjective → rendre.

Faire + Infinitive for Causing an Action

To make someone do something, put the infinitive directly after faire and the person after that. No preposition intervenes, and the two verbs behave as a single unit.

Cette histoire fait réfléchir les gens.

This story makes people think.

faire + infinitive + person.

The Person Becomes Indirect if the Infinitive Has Its Own Object

Faire lire un livre à un enfant has two candidates for object status, so the person is pushed into an indirect role with à. The pronoun then becomes lui or leur.

Je lui ai fait lire le contrat.

I made him read the contract.

Two objects → the person takes à.

The Participle Fait Never Agrees in the Causative

In faire plus an infinitive, the participle fait is invariable even when a direct object precedes it, because the object belongs to the infinitive rather than to faire.

Les enfants, je les ai fait entrer.

The children, I let them in.

je les ai fait entrer, never faits.

Common Mistakes with To Make

Incorrect: Ça me fait heureux. — That makes me happy.

Correct: Ça me rend heureux. — That makes me happy.

An adjective after the object requires rendre. Faire can only be followed by a noun or an infinitive in this structure.

Incorrect: J'ai fait une décision difficile. — I made a difficult decision.

Correct: J'ai pris une décision difficile. — I made a difficult decision.

Décision goes with prendre in French, not faire. The collocation is fixed and no amount of context will rescue faire here.

Incorrect: Il m'a fait à rire. — He made me laugh.

Correct: Il m'a fait rire. — He made me laugh.

In the causative construction, faire is followed directly by the infinitive. Nothing goes between the two verbs, not even à.

Incorrect: Je les ai faits travailler. — I made them work.

Correct: Je les ai fait travailler. — I made them work.

Fait is invariable in the causative, because les is the subject of travailler rather than the object of faire. This exception applies only to faire plus an infinitive.

Where Make Is Neither Faire Nor Rendre

A cluster of everyday phrases takes a third verb entirely, and choosing faire in these places is one of the most audible learner habits.

Decisions, efforts, and risks are taken

French takes these rather than making them, and the pattern is consistent enough to be worth generalising.

Nous devons prendre une décision.: We need to make a decision.
Il a pris un gros risque.: He took a big risk.
Elle a pris rendez-vous chez le dentiste.: She made a dentist's appointment.
Prends ton temps.: Take your time.

Faire une décision is one of the most recognisable English-speaker errors in French, and it is worth unlearning early.

Money is earned, not made

Gagner covers earning, winning, and gaining. Faire de l'argent exists but sounds like a translation and is usually avoided.

Il gagne trois mille euros par mois.: He makes three thousand euros a month.
Elle gagne bien sa vie.: She makes a good living.
L'entreprise a réalisé un bénéfice.: The company made a profit.

For a business result, réaliser un bénéfice or dégager un bénéfice is the standard phrasing.

Making up, making out, making sure

English phrasal verbs built on make have no structural equivalent, so each one needs its own French verb.

Ils se sont réconciliés.: They made up.
Elle a inventé une excuse.: She made up an excuse.
Assure-toi que la porte est fermée.: Make sure the door is closed.
Je n'arrive pas à déchiffrer son écriture.: I can't make out his handwriting.

Faire never appears in any of these. Treat each phrasal verb as an independent vocabulary item.

To Make FAQs

How do you say make in French?: It depends on what follows. Faire for producing something (faire un gâteau), rendre before an adjective (rendre quelqu'un heureux), and faire plus an infinitive for causing an action (faire rire quelqu'un). A number of fixed phrases use other verbs entirely.
What's the difference between faire and rendre?: Faire brings something into existence or makes it happen; rendre changes the state of something that already exists. Rendre is always followed by an adjective: le bruit me rend fou, but il fait du bruit.
How do you say make someone do something?: Faire plus the infinitive, with the person after it: faire travailler les élèves, tu me fais rire. If the infinitive already has its own object, the person moves to à: je lui ai fait lire le contrat.
Why is it prendre une décision and not faire une décision?: Because collocations are lexical, not logical. French takes decisions, appointments and risks, exactly as English takes a photo rather than making one. The pairing simply has to be memorised.
Do you use faire or gagner for making money?: Gagner: il gagne bien sa vie, elle gagne trois mille euros par mois. Faire de l'argent is understood but sounds foreign, and for company profits French says réaliser un bénéfice.