Facere Collocations

The basic verb faciō, facere, fēcī, factum means “make” or “do,” but that gloss does not predict all of its Classical Latin partners. Romans iter faciunt when they travel, impetum faciunt when they attack, and alicui potestātem dīcendī faciunt when they allow someone to speak. The noun and its case frame together create the idiom.

This page concerns lexical collocations, not the causative construction faciō + infinitive, which is treated under Faciō Plus Infinitive and Causation. Most phrases below are normal prose; specially oratorical, literary, and later uses are labeled. The practical lesson is to learn faciō with its recurring object and complements rather than to choose a Latin noun after translating an English phrase word by word.

A diagnostic: object first, English verb second

When you meet facere, first identify its accusative object. Then ask whether that noun regularly forms a conventional unit with the verb. Only after reconstructing the frame should you choose an English translation.

The noun may still retain its ordinary meaning, but repeated pairing narrows the construction. English likewise says “make a decision” but “do a favor”; Latin draws its boundaries in different places.

Movement and force: iter and impetum facere

With iter, facere describes undertaking or covering a journey. A destination may use ad plus accusative; a route may use per plus accusative; distance and time can appear in their normal accusative constructions.

With impetus, the conventional construction is impetum facere in plus the accusative target. It describes the launching of an attack, not simply the existence of aggressive intent.

Compare impetum facere with bellum gerere. English uses “make” in “make war,” but standard Classical prose normally says bellum gerere, not a mechanically assembled ✗ bellum facere. The choice is collocational, not a logical difference between war as an action and an object.

Speech and reference: verba and mentiōnem facere

Verba facere can mean “speak” or “make remarks,” often with dē plus the ablative for the topic. It is at home in public speech and historical prose and is more (formal) than ordinary loquī. The plural verba is part of the established phrase.

Mentiōnem facere makes a person or subject explicit as a topic. Dē plus ablative is clear and productive; a dependent genitive also occurs in Classical prose. Do not infer from English “mention someone” that the person must be the direct accusative object of facere: mentiōnem already occupies that slot.

Ending, allowing, and informing

Fīnem facere means “make an end.” The activity ended may be a dative, especially a concrete trouble or process, or a genitive, especially a gerund such as dīcendī. There is real lexical variation here; there is no single English preposition that mechanically chooses the Latin case.

With potestātem facere or cōpiam facere, Latin “makes” power, permission, access, or opportunity available. The recipient is dative; the action commonly appears as a genitive gerund or gerundive phrase. Cōpiam suī facere can mean “make oneself accessible,” a particularly idiomatic extension.

Aliquem certiōrem facere dē aliquā rē literally “makes someone more certain,” but conventionally means “informs someone.” The informed person is accusative because it is the object being brought into a state; the subject matter follows dē plus ablative.

Satisfying and treating someone

Satis facere is written as two words and takes a dative person, demand, or duty: one “does enough for” it. Depending on context it can mean satisfy, meet an obligation, make amends, or answer a claim. The derived noun satisfactiō becomes more prominent in later technical and Christian Latin, but the verbal frame is securely Classical.

The simpler adverbial combinations bene facere alicui and male facere alicui mean “do good to” and “harm” someone; the affected person is dative.

Productive pattern or fixed pairing?

The broad construction “make/do + accusative” remains productive: a Roman author can describe countless things as being made or done. What is not freely productive is the English translation attached to every noun. Iter facere and verba facere have established senses; replacing iter with a near-synonym or facere with any verb glossed “do” may destroy the idiom. Poetry can stretch ordinary combinations for meter or imagery, and later Latin can develop new facere phrases under vernacular influence. Such extensions do not erase the Classical core.

The proverb below is reproduced without pedagogical macrons. Here sementem facere is a transparent agricultural phrase, “make a sowing,” whose metaphor has become gnomic:

Common Mistakes

Translating “make war” word for word

Making the topic a second direct object

Giving certiorem facere an English indirect-object frame

Treating satis as an accusative noun

Key Takeaways

Parse the accusative partner before translating facere. Learn iter facere, impetum facere in, verba facere dē, and mentiōnem facere dē as conventional frames. Keep the recipient dative with potestātem/cōpiam facere and satis facere, but make the informed person accusative in certiōrem facere. Latin idiom chooses the noun–verb pairing; an English synonym does not license a word-for-word Latin phrase.