A French noun rarely chooses its verb freely. Décision expects prendre; attention expects faire; besoin expects avoir; cri expects pousser. These are not deep semantic facts — they are conventions, and they are exactly the kind of conventions that learners get wrong by translating from English. An English speaker makes a decision and makes a phone call and takes a nap; the French speaker takes a decision, gives a phone call, and makes a nap. Every direction is reversed.
This page collects the most common verb-noun collocations in French, organized by the verb. We focus on the six verbs that dominate the territory — faire, prendre, avoir, donner, mettre, pousser — and treat the most frequent collocations under each. For full inventories of expressions with each verb, see expressions/with-faire, expressions/with-prendre, and expressions/with-avoir.
Faire — the universal "do/make"
Faire is the workhorse of French collocation. It absorbs an enormous range of activities that English distributes across do, make, take, and play.
faire attention (à) — pay attention to, be careful of. Note the à before the object.
Fais attention à la marche, elle est plus haute qu'elle n'en a l'air.
Watch out for the step, it's higher than it looks.
faire la queue — stand in line. Literally "make the tail"; the metaphor is medieval.
On a fait la queue pendant quarante minutes pour entrer au musée.
We waited in line for forty minutes to get into the museum.
faire confiance (à) — trust. Takes à before the person, never directly transitive.
Je lui fais entièrement confiance, on se connaît depuis le lycée.
I trust her completely, we've known each other since high school.
faire la grasse matinée — sleep in. A cultural institution: a long, indulgent morning in bed, especially on Sundays.
Le dimanche, j'aime bien faire la grasse matinée jusqu'à onze heures.
On Sundays, I like to sleep in until eleven.
faire des compliments (à) — pay compliments. The plural is fixed; faire un compliment exists but is less idiomatic.
Il fait des compliments à tout le monde, on ne sait jamais s'il est sincère.
He pays compliments to everyone, you can never tell if he's sincere.
faire semblant (de + inf) — pretend to.
Il fait semblant de dormir quand sa mère l'appelle pour aller à l'école.
He pretends to be asleep when his mother calls him to go to school.
faire peur (à) — frighten, scare. Note: faire peur takes à before the person scared.
Le bruit dans le grenier a fait peur aux enfants toute la nuit.
The noise in the attic scared the kids all night.
For the full faire inventory, see expressions/with-faire.
Prendre — to take
Prendre is where English speakers most consistently reach for the wrong verb. Many concepts that English builds with make or have are built in French with prendre.
prendre une décision — make a decision. Probably the single most-corrected error of English-speaking B1 learners.
Tu dois prendre une décision rapidement, sinon l'offre ne sera plus valable.
You have to make a decision quickly, otherwise the offer won't be valid anymore.
prendre la parole — take the floor, start speaking. Common in meetings, in public speaking, in academic and political contexts.
Le président a pris la parole pour annoncer les nouvelles mesures.
The president took the floor to announce the new measures.
prendre rendez-vous — make an appointment. With doctors, dentists, hairdressers, administrative offices.
Je dois prendre rendez-vous chez le dentiste, ma dent me fait mal depuis hier.
I need to make an appointment with the dentist, my tooth has been hurting since yesterday.
prendre soin de — take care of. Used both physically (caring for a sick person) and abstractly (looking after one's affairs).
Elle prend soin de sa mère depuis qu'elle est tombée malade.
She has been taking care of her mother since she fell ill.
prendre conscience de — become aware of, realize. A high-frequency C-level collocation; you cannot replace prendre with avoir or faire here.
J'ai pris conscience trop tard que j'aurais dû lui parler avant son départ.
I realized too late that I should have spoken to him before he left.
prendre du poids / prendre des kilos — gain weight. The opposite is perdre du poids (lose weight). Note that gagner du poids exists in writing but sounds awkward; prendre is the standard collocation.
J'ai pris cinq kilos pendant le confinement, je dois m'y remettre au sport.
I gained five kilos during lockdown, I need to get back into sports.
prendre froid — catch a cold. Note the lack of article — froid here is treated as an abstract state.
Couvre-toi bien, tu vas prendre froid en sortant sans manteau.
Bundle up, you'll catch a cold going out without a coat.
prendre l'habitude (de + inf) — get into the habit of.
J'ai pris l'habitude de courir le matin avant le travail.
I've gotten into the habit of running in the morning before work.
For the full prendre inventory, see expressions/with-prendre.
Avoir — to have
Avoir in French covers states that English assigns to be. Have hunger, have thirst, have fear, have the air of. The grammatical pattern is well known by B1; the lexical inventory is what expands at B2.
avoir besoin (de) — need. Takes de before the noun or infinitive.
J'ai besoin de parler à quelqu'un, tu as un moment ?
I need to talk to someone, do you have a minute?
avoir envie (de) — feel like, want. The most common verb-noun pairing for expressing desire; far more idiomatic than vouloir in many contexts.
J'ai envie d'une bonne tasse de café, ça te tente ?
I feel like a good cup of coffee, are you tempted?
avoir l'air (de / + adj) — seem, look, appear. With an adjective, the adjective can agree either with air (masculine singular) or with the subject; both are accepted, though grammarians lean toward subject agreement.
Tu as l'air fatiguée, tu as bien dormi ?
You look tired, did you sleep well?
avoir lieu — take place, happen. The standard collocation for any event; se passer or arriver are also possible but avoir lieu is the formal, event-oriented choice.
La conférence aura lieu jeudi prochain à dix-huit heures à l'auditorium.
The conference will take place next Thursday at six p.m. in the auditorium.
avoir raison / avoir tort — be right / be wrong. Where English uses be, French uses avoir.
Tu avais raison, c'était bien le mauvais train qu'on a pris hier.
You were right, it really was the wrong train we took yesterday.
avoir mal (à) — hurt (somewhere). The body part is introduced by à, with article: avoir mal à la tête, au ventre, aux dents.
J'ai mal au dos depuis que j'ai déménagé le canapé tout seul.
My back has been hurting since I moved the couch alone.
avoir honte (de) — be ashamed (of).
J'ai honte de t'avoir menti, j'aurais dû te dire la vérité.
I'm ashamed I lied to you, I should have told you the truth.
For the full avoir inventory, see expressions/with-avoir.
Donner — to give
Donner is a high-frequency collocation verb in journalistic and formal French. The collocations tend to be more elevated in register than the faire/prendre/avoir sets.
donner naissance (à) — give birth to. Both literal (a baby) and figurative (a movement, an idea, a phenomenon).
Cette théorie a donné naissance à toute une école de pensée dans les années soixante.
This theory gave birth to a whole school of thought in the sixties.
donner lieu (à) — give rise to. A formal connector heavily used in journalism and academic writing.
Les nouvelles règles ont donné lieu à plusieurs interprétations contradictoires.
The new rules gave rise to several contradictory interpretations.
donner suite (à) — follow up on, act upon. Standard formal/administrative French; you will see it constantly in business correspondence.
Nous n'avons malheureusement pas pu donner suite à votre candidature cette année.
We unfortunately could not follow up on your application this year.
donner un coup de main (à) — give (someone) a hand, help out. Far more idiomatic than aider in many casual contexts.
Tu peux me donner un coup de main pour porter les cartons jusqu'à la voiture ?
Can you give me a hand carrying the boxes to the car?
donner son avis (sur) — give one's opinion (on). Note the possessive (son/mon/ton), not the article.
Tout le monde a donné son avis sur le projet sauf le directeur, étrangement.
Everyone gave their opinion on the project except the director, oddly.
donner rendez-vous (à) — arrange to meet, set a meeting. Distinct from prendre rendez-vous (with a professional): donner rendez-vous is what you do with a friend.
On s'est donné rendez-vous à dix-neuf heures devant le cinéma.
We agreed to meet at seven p.m. in front of the cinema.
Mettre — to put
Mettre extends well beyond physical placement. Many abstract states are mis (put) in French.
mettre en garde (contre) — warn (against). Formal register; common in journalism and official communication.
Le médecin l'a mise en garde contre les effets secondaires de ce traitement.
The doctor warned her about the side effects of this treatment.
mettre en cause — call into question, implicate.
Le rapport met en cause la responsabilité de plusieurs cadres de l'entreprise.
The report calls into question the responsibility of several executives in the company.
mettre du temps (à + inf) — take time (to do). The du is partitive — literally "put some time."
J'ai mis trois heures à comprendre cet article, il est vraiment dense.
It took me three hours to understand this article, it's really dense.
mettre fin (à) — put an end to.
Le gouvernement a décidé de mettre fin à cette politique controversée.
The government decided to put an end to this controversial policy.
Pousser — to push, to utter
Pousser is the collocation verb for vocal and emotional emissions. English would use let out, give, or make.
pousser un cri — let out a shout/scream. The verb is fixed; faire un cri exists but is far weaker. For a real scream, it is pousser.
Elle a poussé un cri en voyant l'araignée sur le mur de la cuisine.
She let out a scream when she saw the spider on the kitchen wall.
pousser un soupir — heave a sigh. Again, faire un soupir is possible but unusual; pousser is idiomatic.
Il a poussé un long soupir avant de répondre à la question.
He let out a long sigh before answering the question.
pousser un juron — utter a curse word. Slightly literary in register.
Le chauffeur a poussé un juron en voyant le bouchon devant lui.
The driver swore when he saw the traffic jam ahead of him.
Why the verb is rarely intuitive
There is no semantic logic that predicts why décision goes with prendre and attention goes with faire. Take a decision and make attention are equally plausible from first principles — they just happen to be wrong. Each language carves the "do/make/take/give" semantic space differently, and the resulting partitions are largely arbitrary by the time learners encounter them.
A few weak generalizations help. Faire tends to dominate where the activity is conceived as a coherent unit of action (faire la cuisine, faire le ménage). Prendre tends to dominate where there is a sense of seizing or initiating (prendre une décision, prendre la parole). Avoir dominates where the meaning is a state (avoir faim, avoir besoin). Donner dominates where the meaning is producing or releasing something into the world (donner naissance, donner lieu). Pousser dominates with sounds and emotions emitted from the body. But each of these patterns has plenty of exceptions, and you cannot reliably predict the verb of a new collocation from any rule.
Common Mistakes
❌ Il faut faire une décision rapidement.
Incorrect — French *takes* decisions, never *makes* them. The verb is *prendre*.
✅ Il faut prendre une décision rapidement.
A decision needs to be made quickly.
❌ Le concert va prendre lieu samedi soir.
Incorrect — events *have* a place (*avoir lieu*), they do not *take* a place. *Prendre lieu* does not exist.
✅ Le concert va avoir lieu samedi soir.
The concert is going to take place Saturday evening.
❌ Elle a fait un cri quand elle a vu la souris.
Sounds foreign — the verb for emitting a scream is *pousser*, not *faire*. *Faire un cri* is too weak for a real scream.
✅ Elle a poussé un cri quand elle a vu la souris.
She screamed when she saw the mouse.
❌ Je fais confiance Marie sur ce point.
Incorrect — *faire confiance* requires *à* before the person: *faire confiance à quelqu'un*.
✅ Je fais confiance à Marie sur ce point.
I trust Marie on this point.
❌ J'ai besoin pour ton aide.
Incorrect — *avoir besoin* takes *de*, not *pour*, before its object.
✅ J'ai besoin de ton aide.
I need your help.
❌ Le directeur a donné un discours hier.
Sounds foreign — French *makes* a speech (*faire un discours*), it does not *give* one. The English-to-French verb swap fails here.
✅ Le directeur a fait un discours hier.
The director gave a speech yesterday.
Key Takeaways
Verb-noun collocations are the foundation of French phraseology. The six verbs covered here — faire, prendre, avoir, donner, mettre, pousser — account for the bulk of fixed verbal expressions in everyday French. The verb is part of the expression, not a free slot: replacing prendre with faire in prendre une décision produces a sentence no French speaker would say. Resist the urge to translate from English, where verb assignments are completely different. Instead, learn each noun together with its expected verb, as a single lexical unit. The expressions/with-faire, expressions/with-prendre, and expressions/with-avoir pages give you the full inventories under each verb; this page maps the landscape and shows you why getting the verb right matters more than any other lexical decision in B2-to-C1 French.
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