Rendre vs faire
The short answer
Look at what follows. An adjective takes rendre: ça me rend triste, cette musique me rend nostalgique. A verb takes faire: ça me fait pleurer, tu me fais rire. English uses make for both, which is why the pair has to be chosen on structure rather than meaning.
At a glance
Rendre or Faire?
| Compare | RendreFollowed by an adjective. | FaireFollowed by an infinitive. |
|---|---|---|
| What follows | An adjective: heureux, fou, malade | An infinitive: rire, pleurer, réfléchir |
| English | make + adjective | make + verb |
| Example | Ça me rend heureux. | Ça me fait rire. |
| Agreement | The adjective agrees with the object | No adjective to agree |
| Other meanings | To give back: rendre un livre | To do, to make: faire un gâteau |
| Causative | Not used | faire faire: have something done |
How to choose
Ask these, in order
- 1
Is the next word an adjective?
Rendre, and the adjective agrees with the person or thing affected.
Cette nouvelle m’a rendu très heureux.
That news made me very happy.
- 2
Is the next word a verb?
Faire, with the infinitive attached directly.
Tu me fais rire.
You make me laugh.
- 3
Are you having something done by someone else?
Faire plus an infinitive, the causative.
Je fais réparer ma voiture.
I’m having my car repaired.
NBNot doing it yourself, the construction says someone else is.
- 4
Do you mean give back?
Rendre, in its other and much more common everyday sense.
N’oublie pas de rendre les livres.
Don’t forget to take the books back.
Side by side
Each one, in full
When to use rendre
Followed by an adjective.
Rendre plus an adjective describes causing a state: ça me rend triste, le bruit la rend folle, ce film rend les gens optimistes. The adjective agrees with whoever or whatever is affected.
Rendre also has a completely separate everyday meaning, to give back, and that is the one you will use most: rendre un livre, rendre l’argent, rendre visite à quelqu’un. Context separates them without effort.
Cette attente me rend nerveuse.
Nerveuse agrees with the speaker.
Le sucre rend les enfants excités.
Excités agrees with les enfants.
Je dois rendre ce livre à la bibliothèque.
The give-back meaning.
When to use faire
Followed by an infinitive.
Faire plus an infinitive describes causing an action: ça me fait pleurer, cette histoire fait réfléchir, tu me fais penser à quelqu’un. The infinitive attaches directly, with nothing between.
The same structure builds the causative, where you have someone else do something: je fais réparer ma voiture, elle a fait construire une maison. English needs have or get for this, which is why it is easy to miss when reading.
Ce film m’a fait pleurer.
Made me cry.
Il fait couper ses cheveux.
He’s having his hair cut.
Ça fait penser à Rome.
It’s reminiscent of Rome.
NBFaire penser à is the ordinary way to say something reminds you of something.
Mistakes to avoid
What learners actually get wrong
Ça me fait triste.
Ça me rend triste.
Triste is an adjective, so it takes rendre. English uses make for both structures and gives no signal, which is why this is the standard error in the pair.
Ça me rend rire.
Ça me fait rire.
Rire is a verb, so it takes faire. The mirror of the previous error, and it usually appears in the same learner shortly after they have fixed the first one.
Je répare ma voiture au garage.
Je fais réparer ma voiture au garage.
Without faire, the sentence says you are doing the repair yourself, at the garage. The causative is not optional politeness: it changes who does the work.
Cette nouvelle m’a rendu heureuse.
Cette nouvelle m’a rendu heureux.
The adjective after rendre agrees with the person affected, so it has to match the speaker. It is easy to get the verb right and the agreement wrong.
Questions
Asked and answered
- Is there an easy way to remember which is which?
- Anchor each to a sentence you already know. Ça me fait rire and ça me rend fou are both extremely common, and between them they demonstrate the whole rule: verb takes faire, adjective takes rendre.
- What about rendre visite and faire une visite?
- Rendre visite à quelqu’un is to visit a person; faire une visite is more like taking a tour. And visiter is for places, not people, visiter un musée, but rendre visite à ma grand-mère. Using visiter with a person is a common and noticeable error.
- Does the causative faire have other uses?
- Yes, and it is worth recognising: faire savoir (to let someone know), faire remarquer (to point out), se faire couper les cheveux (to get one's hair cut). The reflexive version is very common and means having something done to yourself.