Question 1

Why do we use rend here instead of fait to translate the word "make"?

Accepted Answer

When "to make" means causing a change in someone's emotional, mental, or physical state (and is followed by an adjective), French uses the verb rendre. You use faire when "to make" is followed by an action verb (like making someone do something: faire pleurer). Saying te fait impatient is a very common literal translation mistake for English speakers, but it is incorrect in French.

Question 2

Does the adjective impatient change if I am asking this question to a woman?

Accepted Answer

Yes! The adjective used with rendre must agree in gender and number with the person or thing experiencing the state, which in this case is the direct object pronoun te. If you are speaking to a woman, te represents a female, so you must add an -e and write impatiente.

Question 3

If I wanted to say "Does this situation make her impatient?", how would the sentence change?

Accepted Answer

You would replace the second-person object pronoun te with the third-person feminine direct object pronoun la. Because the direct object is feminine, you must also make the adjective feminine. The sentence becomes: Est-ce que cette situation la rend impatiente ?

Question 4

How would I structure this sentence if I wanted to use inversion instead of est-ce que to sound more formal?

Accepted Answer

Because the subject of the sentence is a noun (cette situation) rather than a simple pronoun, you must use complex inversion. You keep the noun at the beginning, follow it with the object pronoun and verb, and then attach the matching subject pronoun (elle) to the verb with a hyphen. The formal version is: Cette situation te rend-elle impatient ?

Est-ce que cette situation te rend impatient ?

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