Breakdown of Les cols que nous avons fait nettoyer sont blancs.
être
to be
nous
we / us (object pronoun)
avoir
to have
faire
to do, to make
le
him, it (masculine direct object pronoun)
nettoyer
to clean
que
that (introducing a clause)
blanc
white
le col
the collar
Questions & Answers about Les cols que nous avons fait nettoyer sont blancs.
Why doesn't fait agree with Les cols? It comes right after the relative pronoun que.
Normally, a past participle conjugated with avoir agrees with a preceding direct object. However, there is a strict exception for the causative construction: when fait is followed immediately by an infinitive (like nettoyer), it is always invariable. It never takes an -e or an -s.
What is the difference between saying nous avons fait nettoyer and nous avons nettoyé?
The phrase faire nettoyer uses the causative construction (faire + infinitive), which means you caused an action to happen rather than doing it yourself. Nous avons fait nettoyer means "we had [them] cleaned" (for example, at a dry cleaner). If you did the laundry yourself, you would simply say nous avons nettoyé.
What if the sentence used a feminine plural noun, like Les chemises? Would fait change then?
No, it would look exactly the same: Les chemises que nous avons fait nettoyer... Because the fait + infinitive structure is completely invariable, it ignores gender as well as number.
If fait is invariable here, why does the adjective blancs have an -s?
blancs is the adjective describing the main subject of the sentence, Les cols (masculine plural), so it must agree. The special exception we are learning only freezes the past participle fait when it's attached to an infinitive; it doesn't stop normal adjective agreement in the rest of the sentence.
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