Causatives
Introduction
The verb faire is used in French as a sort of Auxiliary
Verb to indicate that rather than the subject doing something itself,
it causes someone or something else to do it.
Compare:
Je construis une maison.
I build a house.
Je fais construire une maison.
I have a house built. ( i.e. someone else builds it for me)
Compare:
Le petit garçon s'est coupé
les cheveux.
The little boy cut his hair. (i.e. he did it to himself)
Le petit garçon s'est fait couper
les cheveux.
The little boy got his hair cut. (someone else cut it)
les problèmes de financement ... ont fait
échouer le projet
problems with financing ... caused the project to fail (OR led to
the failure of the project)
Le gouvernement a fait arrêter
les leaders du groupe.
The government had the leaders of the group arrested.
Notice that faire is conjugated normally, while the other
verb is in the Infinitive.
Exercises
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