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French Verb to do

The French verb to do ("faire" in French), ranks 3rd in the list of most used verb. Only French verbs "être" and "avoir" come before. It's really worth spending some time on this French verb.

We will study its conjugation, its pronunciation, the general use it, and finally give some expressions & proverbs. Let's start !

Conjugation of French verb to do

The French verb to do belongs to the 3rd group, in the family of "-aire" verbs. Be aware that its conjugation is not regular.

Anyway, you will come accross those exceptions so many times that they will very soon sound familiar enough!

Pronunciation of French verb to do

Let's focus in this section on the pronunciation of the French verb to do:

• Je fais : fé
• Nous faisons : fe - zon
• Vous faites : fè - te
• Ils font - fon
• Je fasais :fe - zé or fe - zè. It depends on the region. People from the South would rather pronounce a "è" sound. In Paris, that would be a "é" sound.
• Nous faisions : fe zi - on
• Vous faisiez : fe - zi - é
• Je ferai : fe - ré
• Je ferais : fe - rè . Pay close attention to the difference between the 2 forms "ferai" and "ferais". The simple future is pronunced "é" while the conditionnal tense sounds like a "è".
• Que je fasse : fa - ce
• Que nous fassions : fa - ci - on
• Que vous fassiez : fa - ci - é

You see, it was not that much difficult ! Keep up the good work and you'll make it. Soon, there will be no more secrets for you for the different French sounds.

Use of French verb to do

The French verb to do is used in many different ways.

To express an action:

• Je fais du sport trois fois par semaine.
• Nous ferons la fête ce week-end.
• Si je l'avais su, je l'aurais fait avant.

As an auxiliaire :

• J'ai acheté une voiture la semaine passée.

Expressions / Proverbs using French verb to do

• En diplomatie, il ne suffit pas d'avoir raison, il s'agit aussi de plaire.
• En voulant avoir tout, on perd tout.
• Nous n'avons part à la gloire de nos ancêtres qu'autant que nous nous efforçons de leur ressembler. (Molière)
• Les fous ont leur manie, et nous avons la nôtre.
• N'ayez d'intolérance que vis-à-vis de l'intolérance. (H. Taine)
• Nous n'avouons de petits défauts que pour persuader que nous n'en avons pas de grands. (La Rochefoucauld)

You can also try this lesson to learn more about French pronunciation.

Serious about learning French verbs pronunciation to do? Then you have to try the Audio Verb Conjugator.

Two different French teachers have registered in high-quality audio files more than 200 French verbs. Each verb comes with a male and male voice, which makes it quite unique on the French language learning scene !