Beside the causative faire (which makes things happen), French has two related constructions: laisser + infinitive (which lets things happen) and permettre à ... de + infinitive (which formally grants permission). All three constructions involve a subject who controls whether and how an action by someone else takes place — but they sit on different points along a spectrum from active causation to passive permission.
faire = cause, make happen
laisser = let, allow (without intervening)
permettre à ... de = grant permission, allow (formally)
This page is the companion to the causative faire page. It covers laisser and permettre, the differences between them, and the syntactic templates each requires.
Laisser + infinitive: the permissive construction
Laisser + infinitive is the construction for allowing or letting an action happen — the speaker declines to stop or interfere with what is going on (or what the agent wants to do). The pattern is almost identical to causative faire, but the meaning is permission rather than causation.
Subject + laisser + infinitive (+ agent / object)
Je laisse mes enfants jouer dans le jardin tous les après-midis.
I let my children play in the garden every afternoon.
Laisse-moi parler — tu m'interromps tout le temps.
Let me speak — you keep interrupting me.
On a laissé partir le suspect faute de preuves.
We let the suspect go for lack of evidence.
Laissez tomber, ce n'est pas grave.
Drop it / Forget it, it's not a big deal. (idiomatic)
Ne le laisse pas s'asseoir sur cette chaise — elle est cassée.
Don't let him sit on that chair — it's broken.
The expression laisse tomber (literally "let fall") is one of the most common idioms in French — a casual brush-off equivalent to "drop it," "forget about it," "never mind." Hear it in everyday conversation.
Word order with laisser: more flexible than faire
Unlike causative faire, which strictly requires the infinitive to come immediately after, laisser permits two word orders when there is a single agent:
Je laisse Pierre partir.
I let Pierre leave. (agent before infinitive — 'liberal' order)
Je laisse partir Pierre.
I let Pierre leave. (agent after infinitive — 'restrictive' order)
Both are correct and both occur in modern French. The first order (agent before infinitive) is slightly more common in spoken French and feels closer to the underlying Pierre + part clause. The second order (infinitive before agent) is more common in formal writing and parallels the causative faire pattern.
When the embedded action has both an agent and a thing affected, the structure parallels causative faire:
Je laisse les enfants regarder la télé pendant le dîner.
I let the children watch TV during dinner. (agent + thing affected)
On laisse les invités choisir leur dessert.
We let the guests choose their dessert.
Le professeur laisse les élèves faire leurs devoirs en classe.
The teacher lets the students do their homework in class.
The flexibility on word order distinguishes laisser from faire. Je fais Pierre venir is wrong; je laisse Pierre venir is fine. This reflects a deeper structural difference: the causative faire fuses tightly with its infinitive, while laisser allows the embedded clause more autonomy.
Pronouns with laisser
Object pronouns precede laisser, exactly as with causative faire:
Je le laisse partir.
I let him leave.
Je l'ai laissé partir hier soir.
I let him leave last night.
Laisse-moi tranquille !
Leave me alone! / Let me be!
Laissez-le tranquille, il a déjà assez de problèmes.
Leave him alone, he already has enough problems.
Ne les laisse pas faire — ils vont tout casser.
Don't let them — they'll break everything.
When the embedded action has both an agent and a direct object, the same double-clitic pattern appears as with causative faire:
Je le lui laisse manger sans rien dire.
I let him eat it without saying anything. (le = the food, lui = him)
On la leur a laissée porter toute la soirée.
We let them wear it all evening. (la = the dress, leur = them — though see below on agreement)
Past participle of laisser: now invariable (1990 reform)
Historically, the past participle of laisser in this construction agreed with a preceding direct object when that object was the agent of the embedded infinitive. The rule was notoriously fiddly: La fille que j'ai laissée partir (agreement, because la fille is the agent of partir) but La pomme que j'ai laissé manger à Pierre (no agreement, because la pomme is the object eaten, not the agent).
Modern usage has shifted toward invariability for laissé in this construction, in line with causative fait. The Académie française formally accepted laissé as invariable in 2018, and most contemporary style guides now recommend it. The traditional agreement rule is still defensible and appears in older or more conservative texts.
✅ Les enfants que j'ai laissé partir sont rentrés tard.
The children I let leave came home late. (modern recommendation: invariable)
Les enfants que j'ai laissés partir sont rentrés tard. (older / traditional rule)
The children I let leave came home late. (with agreement, traditional rule before 1990)
Both forms occur in modern texts. Academic and journalistic writing increasingly favours invariability. Older speakers, traditionalist writers, and some literary texts still use the agreement rule. Either is defensible; we recommend the invariable form for consistency with the faire causative.
Permettre à ... de + infinitive: the formal permission construction
Permettre (to allow, to permit) takes a different syntactic template than laisser — and the difference catches most learners. Permettre requires both an indirect-object marker (à) and an infinitival marker (de) before the embedded verb.
Subject + permettre + à + person + de + infinitive
Je permets à mon fils de sortir le samedi soir.
I allow my son to go out on Saturday evenings.
Cela me permet de comprendre pourquoi il est en retard.
That lets me understand why he's late.
Permets-moi de partir maintenant, j'ai un train à prendre.
Allow me to leave now, I have a train to catch.
Le médecin lui a permis de reprendre le sport la semaine prochaine.
The doctor allowed him to start playing sports again next week.
On nous a permis d'entrer juste avant la fermeture.
They let us in just before closing.
Note the structure: the person being permitted is marked with à (or appears as a dative pronoun like me, te, lui, nous, vous, leur), and the action being permitted is introduced by de + infinitive.
Pronouns with permettre
Because permettre takes an indirect-object construction, pronouns referring to the permitted person are indirect-object pronouns (me, te, lui, nous, vous, leur).
Je lui permets de sortir.
I allow him to go out. (lui = à mon fils)
Je leur ai permis de rester jusqu'à minuit.
I allowed them to stay until midnight.
Permettez-moi de vous interrompre un instant.
Allow me to interrupt you for a moment.
On ne nous a pas permis de visiter la chapelle privée.
We weren't allowed to visit the private chapel.
The pronoun for je permets à Marie de sortir is je lui permets de sortir — Marie becomes lui because she is the indirect object of permettre.
Past participle agreement with permettre
Unlike laisser, permis (the past participle of permettre) follows the standard rules: it agrees with a preceding direct object, but in this construction the only nominal complements are the indirect-object person (which never triggers agreement) and the de-infinitive clause (which is not a direct object). So in practice permis stays in the masculine singular form.
Je leur ai permis de rester. (no agreement)
I allowed them to stay. (no preceding DO; permis stays masculine singular)
Cette autorisation, on me l'a permise hier. (rare; here 'l'' is a feminine DO)
This authorization, they granted it to me yesterday. (one of the rare cases where permise can agree)
The agreement issue does not arise in everyday use of permettre à ... de + infinitive.
Faire vs laisser vs permettre: the three-way contrast
The three constructions sit on a spectrum from active causation to formal permission. A side-by-side comparison crystallizes the differences:
| Construction | Meaning | Register |
|---|---|---|
| faire + inf | cause to happen, make X do | neutral; high-frequency |
| laisser + inf | let, allow (passively) | everyday, conversational |
| permettre à X de + inf | grant permission to X to do | formal, polite, official |
A single English sentence — "I let / allow my son to go out" — can be rendered three different ways in French, each with a different shading:
Je laisse mon fils sortir.
I let my son go out. — neutral; could be permission, could just be 'I'm not stopping him'.
Je permets à mon fils de sortir.
I allow my son to go out. — explicit permission, more formal.
Je fais sortir mon fils.
I make my son go out / I send my son out. — causation, the parent is making it happen.
The third sentence is the most striking: it is no longer permissive at all. It means the parent is actively sending the son outside (perhaps because he was misbehaving indoors, or because he needs fresh air). This is the spectrum at work — faire is the active end, laisser is the passive middle, permettre is the formally polite end.
When to use which?
- Use laisser when you want the casual, neutral "let" — the most common everyday verb.
- Use permettre à ... de when you want explicit, formal permission — appropriate for asking, granting, or refusing in a polite or official context. Permettez-moi de (allow me to) is a fixed polite-discourse opener.
- Use faire when the speaker is the one making it happen — when there is real causation, force, or arrangement involved.
Side-by-side examples
Compare these triplets to internalize the spectrum:
Le professeur laisse les élèves sortir tôt.
The teacher lets the students leave early. (casual permission)
Le professeur permet aux élèves de sortir tôt.
The teacher allows the students to leave early. (formal permission, perhaps as an unusual exception)
Le professeur fait sortir les élèves tôt.
The teacher makes the students leave early / sends the students out early. (causative — the teacher is the agent of the leaving)
Laisse-moi parler !
Let me speak! (neutral, demanding)
Permettez-moi de parler.
Allow me to speak. (formal, polite, even deferential)
Faites-moi parler.
Make me speak / Get me to speak. (causative — bring it about that I speak)
Je laisse mes amis fumer dans le salon.
I let my friends smoke in the living room. (I don't object)
Je permets à mes amis de fumer dans le salon.
I allow my friends to smoke in the living room. (explicit permission, more formal)
Je fais fumer mes amis dans le salon.
I make my friends smoke in the living room. (this barely makes sense — you can't really 'make' someone smoke; the construction would imply some kind of compulsion)
The third triplet shows how faire breaks down with verbs that imply free choice. You can faire venir someone (call them over) but you generally cannot faire fumer them (make them smoke) — smoking is too volitional. The semantic edge of faire requires the action to be one that can be caused by an external party.
Common idiomatic uses
A few fixed expressions are worth memorizing.
Laisse tomber / laisser tomber
The verb laisser tomber literally means "to let fall," but in casual French it means "drop it / forget it / give up on it." One of the most frequent expressions in spoken French.
Laisse tomber, ce n'est pas grave.
Drop it, it's not a big deal.
Il a laissé tomber ses études après deux ans.
He dropped out of his studies after two years.
Tu ne peux pas me laisser tomber maintenant !
You can't bail on me now!
Permettez-moi de + infinitive
The fixed polite formula permettez-moi de + infinitive is one of the standard openers in formal speech, lectures, and written addresses.
Permettez-moi de vous présenter ma collègue, Madame Dubois.
Allow me to introduce my colleague, Madame Dubois.
Permettez-moi d'ajouter une remarque sur ce point.
Allow me to add a remark on this point.
Permettez-moi d'en douter.
Allow me to doubt it. (a polite way of saying 'I don't believe you')
Laisser + person + tranquille
The construction laisser + person + tranquille means "to leave someone alone."
Laisse-moi tranquille, j'ai besoin de me concentrer.
Leave me alone, I need to concentrate.
Laissez-le tranquille — il vient de perdre son père.
Leave him alone — he just lost his father.
Comparison with English
Three friction points for English speakers.
1. Permettre requires de before the infinitive
English "allow X to do Y" maps to French permettre à X de faire Y. The de is non-optional; learners often drop it on the analogy of "allow" + bare infinitive ("allow them go" — wait, that's not English either; English actually requires "to," and French requires "de"). The two languages handle the issue similarly, but the French de is a separate marker that English speakers may forget.
❌ Je permets à mon fils sortir.
Wrong: missing the 'de' — permettre à X DE + infinitive.
✅ Je permets à mon fils de sortir.
I allow my son to go out.
2. Permettre takes a dative person
In je permets à Marie, Marie is an indirect object in French — she's the one to whom permission is given. So her pronominalization is lui (or leur), not la. English uses an unmarked pronoun ("I allow her to go"), but French uses the dative form.
❌ Je la permets de sortir.
Wrong: Marie is the indirect object of permettre, so she takes 'lui' as a clitic, not 'la'.
✅ Je lui permets de sortir.
I allow her to go out.
3. The three-way distinction has no English exact match
English "let," "allow," and "make" do not perfectly correspond to French laisser, permettre, and faire. English "let" overlaps with both laisser and permettre; English "make" overlaps with faire. The pragmatic test is register and formality: laisser is casual, permettre is formal, faire is causal.
Common Mistakes
❌ Je permets à mon fils sortir le samedi.
Wrong: missing 'de'. Permettre takes à + person + DE + infinitive.
✅ Je permets à mon fils de sortir le samedi.
I allow my son to go out on Saturdays.
❌ Je laisse à mes enfants jouer dans le jardin.
Wrong: laisser does NOT take 'à' before the agent. Just 'je laisse mes enfants jouer dans le jardin'.
✅ Je laisse mes enfants jouer dans le jardin.
I let my children play in the garden.
❌ Je la permets de partir.
Wrong: 'permettre' takes an indirect-object person. Use 'lui' (or 'leur'), not 'la'.
✅ Je lui permets de partir.
I allow her to leave.
❌ La fille que j'ai laissée partir est rentrée tard. (in modern recommended usage)
Acceptable but old-school. The current recommendation (Académie française 2018) is invariable 'laissé' in causative-permissive constructions.
✅ La fille que j'ai laissé partir est rentrée tard.
The girl I let leave came back late. (modern, invariable)
❌ Permets-moi parler un instant.
Wrong: missing 'de'. The fixed formula is 'permets-moi de + infinitive'.
✅ Permets-moi de parler un instant. / Permettez-moi de parler un instant.
Allow me to speak for a moment. (informal / formal)
Key takeaways
- Laisser + infinitive = let, allow (passively, neutrally). Word order is flexible: je laisse Pierre partir or je laisse partir Pierre. Pronouns precede laisser.
- Permettre à + person + de + infinitive = grant permission. The structure is non-negotiable: à before the person, de before the infinitive. Pronouns are dative (lui, leur, me, te, nous, vous).
- Faire + infinitive = cause, make happen. The active end of the spectrum.
- The three-way contrast — faire (cause) / laisser (let) / permettre à ... de (formally allow) — captures English distinctions that don't have one-to-one French equivalents.
- The modern recommendation (Académie française 2018) makes the past participle of laisser in this construction invariable: la fille que j'ai laissé partir. This aligns it with causative fait.
- Idiomatic fixed phrases: laisse tomber (drop it), permettez-moi de (allow me to), laisser quelqu'un tranquille (leave someone alone).
- For the causative faire, see the dedicated page.
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- Le Causatif avec FaireB1 — The causative faire + infinitive lets one verb express English 'have someone do,' 'make someone do,' and 'get something done.' Master the agent marking with à and par, the rigid pronoun ordering, and the invariable past participle.
- L'Infinitif avec Faire et Laisser (causative)B1 — The construction faire + infinitive lets one verb do the work of English 'have someone do something,' 'make someone do something,' or 'get something done.' Master the agent-marking with à and par, the rigid pronoun ordering, and the invariable past participle that catches every learner.
- L'Infinitif: OverviewA2 — The French infinitive is the bare verb form (parler, finir, vendre, faire). It is the dictionary entry, the most syntactically flexible form of the verb, and the form English speakers most often misuse — usually because they reach for the '-ing' form where French wants the bare infinitive.
- Past participle agreement with avoirA2 — The rule that French native speakers themselves struggle with: when avoir-conjugated participles agree with a preceding direct object, and when they don't.