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Je voudrais faire raccourcir ce manteau.

Je voudrais faire raccourcir ce manteau.
I would like to have this coat shortened.
From Lesson 158:The causative construction (faire)·French

Questions & Answers about Je voudrais faire raccourcir ce manteau.

Why do we use faire raccourcir instead of just saying Je voudrais raccourcir ce manteau?
If you used just raccourcir, it would mean you are going to take a needle and thread and shorten the coat yourself! The structure of faire followed by an infinitive is called the causative. You use it when you are having someone else perform the action for you.
Can I put the object in the middle, like faire ce manteau raccourcir?
No, and this is a big difference from English. In English, we put the object between the verbs: to have the coat shortened. In French, the causative structure is strict. The verb faire and the action verb raccourcir must stay glued together, so the object ce manteau has to come after both of them.
Why are there three verbs in a row here with voudrais faire raccourcir?
It looks like a lot, but they follow a logical chain. Voudrais is the conjugated main verb expressing what you want. It is followed by the infinitive faire to set up the causative structure. Because faire here must always be followed by the action you want done, we add the second infinitive raccourcir right after it.
Is there an easy way to remember the meaning of the verb raccourcir?
Yes! Look closely at the middle of the word and you will see court, which is the French adjective for short. The prefix ra- and the verb ending -ir are added to turn it into an action, meaning to shorten.

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