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Elle fait un gâteau pour la fête.

Elle fait un gâteau pour la fête.
She is making a cake for the party.
From Lesson 38:The verb to do/make (faire)·French

Questions & Answers about Elle fait un gâteau pour la fête.

Why is it "Elle fait" and not something with "est" for "She is making"?
In French, the present tense covers both "she makes" and "she is making". You don't need to translate the "is" or add a special "-ing" ending. Elle fait simply means both depending on the context!
Doesn't the verb faire usually mean "to do"? Why does it mean "making" here?
The verb faire is very flexible and means both "to do" and "to make". Because a cake (un gâteau) is a physical thing you create, the translation naturally becomes "making" in English.
Do I pronounce the "t" at the end of fait?
No, the "t" at the end of fait is silent. The word sounds a lot like the English word "fay".
Why do gâteau and fête have that little hat accent on them?
That accent is called a circumflex. In many French words, it tells you that there used to be an "s" after that vowel hundreds of years ago. You can sometimes see this in related English words, like "feast" or "festival" for fête!
Why do we use un for the cake but la for the party?
In French, every noun has a gender. Gâteau is a masculine word, so it uses un (a). Fête is a feminine word, so it uses la (the). A helpful trick for beginners: words ending in -eau are almost always masculine.

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