Fare is the most productive verb in Italian. It is the workhorse behind hundreds of idiomatic collocations — many of which English would split across do, make, take, have, give. Knowing how to conjugate fare gets you the form. Knowing the collocations gets you the language.
Fare comes from Latin facere, and that history explains the irregularities in its present tense — the -cc- in faccio and facciamo, and the underlying stem fac- that surfaces in many other tenses.
The conjugation
| Person | Conjugation | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| io | faccio | fàccio |
| tu | fai | fài |
| lui / lei / Lei | fa | fà |
| noi | facciamo | facciàmo |
| voi | fate | fàte |
| loro | fanno | fànno |
Three points to internalize:
The -cc- in faccio and facciamo preserves the original Latin stem fac-. Pronounce both consonants distinctly: FAC-cho, fac-CHA-mo.
Fanno doubles the n, joining the irregular -are pattern with andare (vanno), dare (danno), and stare (stanno). Never write fano.
Cosa fai stasera?
What are you doing tonight?
Faccio l'avvocato a Milano.
I'm a lawyer in Milan.
Mio padre fa il medico da trent'anni.
My father has been a doctor for thirty years.
Cosa facciamo domenica?
What are we doing on Sunday?
I bambini fanno troppo rumore.
The kids are making too much noise.
Auxiliary in compound tenses: avere
Fare is transitive — it takes a direct object — and so it takes avere in compound tenses. The participio passato is fatto (irregular).
Ho fatto colazione alle sette stamattina.
I had breakfast at seven this morning.
Cosa hai fatto ieri?
What did you do yesterday?
The participio agrees only when preceded by lo, la, li, le, ne (the standard rule for verbs taking avere): L'ho fatta (I did it — feminine direct object).
Fare as profession: 'fare il/la + job'
To say what someone does for a living, Italian uses fare + definite article + profession. This is one of the most useful collocations in everyday Italian.
Faccio l'insegnante.
I'm a teacher.
Mia sorella fa il medico in un ospedale di Torino.
My sister works as a doctor at a hospital in Turin.
Cosa fai nella vita? — Faccio il programmatore.
What do you do for a living? — I'm a programmer.
The alternative is sono + profession (no article): Sono insegnante, Sono medico. Both are correct; fare il/la sounds slightly more colloquial and is the more common answer to Che lavoro fai?
Weather expressions
Italian uses fare for almost all weather expressions. The subject is impersonal — there is no Italian "it," but the 3sg form fa carries the impersonal sense.
| Italian | Translation |
|---|---|
| fa caldo | it's hot |
| fa freddo | it's cold |
| fa fresco | it's cool |
| fa bello | the weather is nice |
| fa brutto | the weather is bad |
| fa un caldo bestiale | it's brutally hot |
Oggi fa molto caldo, andiamo al mare?
It's really hot today, shall we go to the beach?
In montagna fa fresco anche d'estate.
In the mountains it's cool even in summer.
Che bella giornata, fa proprio bello!
What a beautiful day, the weather is really nice!
Note the contrast with avere caldo / freddo (which describes a person's sensation): Ho caldo = "I feel hot"; Fa caldo = "It's hot (out)." Mixing these is one of the most common English-speaker errors. See avere for the full sensation pattern.
The high-frequency collocations
This is where fare earns its title as Italy's most overworked verb. Memorize this list — every entry is daily-conversation material.
| Italian | Translation | English uses |
|---|---|---|
| fare colazione | to have breakfast | have |
| fare la spesa | to do grocery shopping | do |
| fare le spese / shopping | to go shopping (clothes etc.) | do |
| fare una domanda | to ask a question | ask |
| fare un giro | to take a walk / drive | take |
| fare un viaggio | to take a trip | take |
| fare una foto | to take a photo | take |
| fare il bagno | to take a bath / go for a swim | take / go |
| fare la doccia | to take a shower | take |
| fare attenzione | to pay attention | pay |
| fare tardi | to be late, run late | be |
| fare in tempo | to be on time / make it | be / make |
| fare paura | to scare, be scary | be |
| fare bene/male | to do good/harm; to feel good/bad | do / feel |
| fare finta (di) | to pretend (to) | pretend |
| fare pace | to make up | make |
| fare schifo | to be disgusting | be |
| fare caso (a) | to notice | notice |
| fare presto | to hurry | be quick |
A che ora fai colazione di solito?
What time do you usually have breakfast?
Faccio la spesa il sabato mattina.
I do the grocery shopping on Saturday mornings.
Posso farti una domanda?
Can I ask you a question?
Facciamo un giro in centro?
Shall we take a walk downtown?
Mi puoi fare una foto, per favore?
Could you take a picture of me, please?
Fai attenzione alla strada!
Pay attention to the road!
Scusa il ritardo, ho fatto tardi al lavoro.
Sorry I'm late, I got held up at work.
Quel film fa proprio paura, non lo guardo da sola.
That movie is really scary, I won't watch it alone.
Lo sport fa bene alla salute.
Sport is good for your health.
Fa' finta di niente.
Pretend nothing happened.
The causative: fare + infinitive
Italian has an elegant single-verb construction for what English expresses with have/get/make someone do something. It uses fare + infinitive.
Faccio riparare la macchina.
I'm having the car repaired.
Mia madre mi fa studiare ogni sera.
My mother makes me study every evening.
Faccio venire un idraulico domani.
I'm having a plumber come tomorrow.
Il professore ci fa leggere un libro a settimana.
The professor has us read one book a week.
The structure is fare + infinitive — no preposition. The person who does the action goes after the infinitive (introduced by a if there is also a direct object: faccio riparare la macchina al meccanico — "I have the mechanic fix the car").
This causative is everywhere in spoken Italian. English speakers tend to overuse periphrastic equivalents (chiedere a qualcuno di + infinitive); reach instead for fare.
Idiomatic and impersonal uses
A few more high-frequency uses that round out fare's range.
How long ago: 'fa'
Time-since expressions use fa ("ago"). The structure is time expression + fa.
Sono arrivato due ore fa.
I arrived two hours ago.
Tre anni fa vivevo a Berlino.
Three years ago I was living in Berlin.
Asking the time
The 3sg/3pl of fare appears in time questions, though more standard expressions use essere (Che ora è?).
Che ora fai? (informal, often when comparing watches)
What time do you have?
Math and counting
Due più due fa quattro.
Two plus two is four.
Quanto fa otto per sette?
What's eight times seven?
The imperative
The tu imperative of fare has two forms in modern Italian:
- fai (the same as the indicative tu form)
- fa' (apocopated, with apostrophe — common before pronouns)
The Lei form is faccia (from the congiuntivo). The noi form is facciamo ("let's do/make").
Fai presto, è tardi!
Hurry up, it's late!
Fa' attenzione!
Be careful!
Faccia pure, signora.
Go ahead, ma'am.
Facciamo una pausa.
Let's take a break.
The negative tu imperative is non fare: non fare rumore! (don't make noise).
When pronouns attach to the apocopated fa', the consonant of the pronoun doubles: fammi sapere (let me know), fallo (do it), fatti vedere (let yourself be seen). This is the same syntactic doubling that happens with da', di', va', sta'.
Fammi sapere quando arrivi.
Let me know when you arrive.
Fallo subito, per favore.
Do it right away, please.
Common mistakes
❌ Compro la spesa il sabato.
Incorrect calque — 'comprare' is for buying a specific item; the fixed expression for the weekly grocery run is 'fare la spesa'.
✅ Faccio la spesa il sabato.
Correct — fare la spesa is the idiomatic expression for doing the grocery shopping.
❌ Io fano colazione alle otto.
Incorrect — io takes -o (faccio), and 3pl is fanno with double n.
✅ Io faccio colazione alle otto.
Correct — io faccio.
❌ Sono caldo oggi.
Incorrect — this implies hot-tempered or sexually suggestive.
✅ Ho caldo oggi. / Fa caldo oggi.
Correct — 'ho caldo' for personal sensation; 'fa caldo' for ambient temperature.
❌ Prendo una domanda?
Incorrect calque from English 'take a question'.
✅ Posso fare una domanda?
Correct — Italian 'fa' a question, doesn't 'take' one.
❌ Loro fano la pasta.
Incorrect — fanno doubles the n.
✅ Loro fanno la pasta.
Correct — fanno like vanno, danno, stanno.
❌ Ho fatto chiedere a Marco di aiutarmi.
Awkward — for the causative, use fare + infinitive directly.
✅ Ho fatto venire Marco ad aiutarmi. / Ho chiesto a Marco di aiutarmi.
Correct — different constructions for different shades of meaning. Note the eufonic 'ad' before a vowel.
❌ Faccio una doccia ogni mattina.
Acceptable but uncommon — Italian uses the definite article in this fixed expression.
✅ Faccio la doccia ogni mattina.
Correct — fare la doccia (with the article).
Key takeaways
Fare conjugates as faccio, fai, fa, facciamo, fate, fanno — the -cc- in faccio/facciamo and the doubled n in fanno are non-negotiable. The participio is fatto.
Fare is the verb of choice whenever English uses do, make, take, have, give, pay with an abstract noun. Memorize the collocations as units: fare colazione, fare la spesa, fare una domanda, fare paura, fare attenzione, fare tardi, fare bene.
Use fare for weather expressions: fa caldo, fa freddo, fa bello. Distinguish from ho caldo / ho freddo (personal sensation, with avere).
The causative fare + infinitive is one of Italian's most economical constructions: faccio riparare la macchina expresses what English needs five words for. Reach for it.
Once fare is solid, dire closes out the high-frequency irregular -ere/-ire group. The two together — fare and dire — handle a huge share of everyday Italian.
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Open the Italian course →Related Topics
- Presente: Dire (to say/tell)A1 — How to conjugate dire and how to choose between dire, parlare, and raccontare — Italian's three-way split for what English collapses into 'say' and 'tell'.
- Presente: StareA1 — How to conjugate stare in the present and how to choose between stare and essere — health, progressive aspect, imminent future, and a few stubborn collocations.
- Presente: Avere (to have)A1 — How to conjugate avere in the present indicative — its silent h, its many idiomatic uses for states English expresses with 'to be,' and its role as the default auxiliary in compound tenses.
- Presente Indicativo: OverviewA1 — How Italian's most-used tense covers everything English splits between simple present and present progressive — and why 'sto facendo' is not the default.
- Auxiliary Verbs: avere, essere, stareA2 — The three auxiliary verbs that build Italian's compound tenses, the progressive, and the imminent future — and why getting them right is foundational.