Doing Nothing But: "Ne faire que"
When a broken vending machine refuses to dispense your snack, you need a way to vent your frustration. To say that someone or something does "nothing but" a single action, use the construction ne faire que.
Frame the conjugated verb faire (to do) with ne and que, and follow it directly with the infinitive of the action verb.
| This piece of junk does nothing but blink. | Cette saleté ne fait que clignoter. |
Que must contract to qu' when the infinitive verb begins with a vowel sound.
| The slot does nothing but gobble up all my change. | La fente ne fait qu'engloutir toute ma monnaie. |
Conjugate faire to match your subject. The stubbornly repeated action always stays in the infinitive.
| Helpless, I do nothing but struggle with the machine. | Impuissant, je ne fais que m'acharner sur la machine. |
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