Fazer (to Do/Make) in Portuguese

In Brief

Portuguese fazer covers both English “do” and “make”: Faço o jantar can mean “I make dinner,” while Faço exercício means “I exercise.” Its present tense is irregular, especially faço, and its third-person form faz also appears in weather expressions such as Faz frio (“It is cold”).

Overview

Fazer is one of the most useful verbs in Portuguese. It describes producing something, carrying out an activity, completing work, and taking part in many everyday routines. It also appears in fixed expressions about weather, age, elapsed time, and social plans. English divides much of this territory between “do” and “make”; Portuguese normally asks you to learn which phrase uses fazer, rather than choose between two separate verbs.

This verb is introduced at A1 because forms such as faço, faz and fazemos are needed almost immediately. It is irregular: its stem (the part before the ending) changes in some forms, so simply applying the regular -er pattern does not produce the whole conjugation. Fortunately, the six present-tense forms are short and common enough to learn as a set.

The core beginner task is simple: memorise the present tense and a handful of useful phrases. Later sections distinguish European and Brazilian usage and introduce meanings that you can recognise now without needing to produce them yet.

How It Works

Present-tense conjugation

The infinitive (the dictionary form of a verb) is fazer. Its present indicative forms—used for facts, habits, and actions happening now—are:

Person	Portuguese	Meaning
eu	faço	I do / make; I am doing / making
tu	fazes	you do / make (singular, informal)
ele / ela / você	faz	he / she does or makes; you do or make
nós	fazemos	we do / make
vós	fazeis	you do / make (plural)
eles / elas / vocês	fazem	they do / make; you all do or make

The cedilla in faço matters: ç keeps the soft /s/ sound before o. Do not write faco. The other forms use z.

Portuguese often leaves out a subject pronoun (a word such as “I,” “you,” or “we”) when the verb form or context identifies the person: Faço o almoço is naturally “I’m making lunch.” In Brazilian Portuguese, você and vocês are extremely common and take third-person forms: Você faz and vocês fazem. European Portuguese commonly uses tu fazes for one familiar person and vocês fazem for more than one person. Vós fazeis is grammatically correct but uncommon in ordinary modern conversation; it survives in some regional, formal, and religious settings.

English can use one present form for “I do,” “I am doing,” and “I do regularly.” Portuguese often uses the simple present for all three when context is clear:

• Faço o jantar agora. — I’m making dinner now.
• Faço o jantar todos os dias. — I make dinner every day.

For an action visibly in progress, speakers may also use a progressive construction. European Portuguese commonly says Estou a fazer o jantar; Brazilian Portuguese commonly says Estou fazendo o jantar. These constructions belong to a wider topic, but recognising them helps you avoid expecting faço to map to only one English tense.

“Do” and “make” with one verb

Use fazer + noun when someone carries out an activity, creates a result, or performs a task. A noun is a word for a person, thing, activity, or idea.

Pattern	Example	Natural English meaning
make or prepare something	fazer o jantar	to make dinner
carry out a task	fazer os trabalhos de casa	to do homework
take part in an activity	fazer desporto	to do/play sports
create something	fazer um bolo	to make a cake
make an arrangement	fazer uma reserva	to make a reservation
ask something	fazer uma pergunta	to ask a question

The English translation is not always literally “do” or “make.” For example, Portuguese “makes” a question (fazer uma pergunta), where natural English says “ask a question.” Learn the complete phrase rather than translating one word at a time.

Weather expressions

In weather statements, faz is impersonal: it does not refer to a person or thing doing the action. Use the third-person singular without ele:

• Faz calor. — It is hot.
• Faz frio. — It is cold.
• Faz bom tempo. — The weather is good.
• Faz vento. — It is windy.

English requires the empty subject “it,” but Portuguese does not add one. Weather vocabulary varies by expression: Portuguese also uses estar in Está a chover / Está chovendo (“It is raining”) and haver in Há muitas nuvens (“There are many clouds”). Do not assume that every weather sentence uses fazer.

Age and birthdays

With a number of years, fazer anos can mean “to have a birthday” or “to turn a certain age”:

• Faço anos amanhã. — It’s my birthday tomorrow.
• Ela faz vinte anos em maio. — She turns twenty in May.

This use is especially characteristic of European Portuguese. In Brazil, fazer aniversário is the usual phrase for “to have a birthday”: Ela faz aniversário em maio. To state someone’s current age, use ter (“to have”): Ela tem vinte anos means “She is twenty.” It does not mean that her twentieth birthday is happening now.

Examples in Context

Portuguese	English	Note
O que fazes?	What are you doing?	Informal singular tu form
Faço desporto três vezes por semana.	I exercise three times a week.	European Portuguese wording
A Ana faz um bolo para a festa.	Ana is making a cake for the party.	Producing something
Fazemos o jantar juntos.	We make dinner together.	First-person plural
Vocês fazem os trabalhos de casa à noite?	Do you all do your homework at night?	vocês takes fazem
Ele faz uma pergunta importante.	He asks an important question.	Natural English uses “ask”
Faço uma reserva para duas pessoas.	I’m making a reservation for two people.	Common service encounter
Hoje faz calor, mas amanhã faz frio.	It is hot today, but tomorrow it will be cold.	Impersonal weather use
Quando faz bom tempo, vamos à praia.	When the weather is good, we go to the beach.	Fixed weather phrase
A minha irmã faz anos no sábado.	My sister’s birthday is on Saturday.	Common in Portugal
Você faz aniversário em julho?	Is your birthday in July?	Common Brazilian wording
Este barulho faz-me mal.	This noise is bad for me.	European object-pronoun placement
O que é que eles fazem aos fins de semana?	What do they do at weekends?	General activity or habit
Estou a fazer café.	I’m making coffee.	European progressive
Estou fazendo café.	I’m making coffee.	Brazilian progressive

Common Mistakes

Treating fazer as a regular -er verb

• Wrong: Eu fazo o almoço.
• Right: Eu faço o almoço.
• Why: The first-person singular is irregular and is written with ç: faço.

Using the wrong form after você

• Wrong: Você fazes exercício?
• Right: Você faz exercício?
• Why: Although você means “you,” it takes a third-person singular verb. Use fazes with tu and faz with você.

Adding an English-style “it” to weather phrases

• Wrong: Ele faz frio hoje.
• Right: Faz frio hoje.
• Why: Weather faz is impersonal. Portuguese does not insert a pronoun equivalent to English “it.” Ele faz frio would wrongly suggest that “he” makes cold weather.

Translating every “make” with fazer

• Wrong: Ela faz-me feliz as the only assumed pattern in every variety and context.
• Right: Ela faz-me feliz (common European pattern) or Ela me faz feliz (common Brazilian pattern).
• Why: Fazer is correct here, but unstressed object pronouns (short forms such as me, meaning “me”) are placed differently across varieties. Copy the pattern of the Portuguese variety you are learning.

More broadly, not every English phrase containing “do” or “make” uses fazer. Portuguese says tomar uma decisão or tomar banho, for example, though fazer uma decisão and fazer um banho are not the normal choices. Learn frequent combinations as complete units.

Confusing current age with a birthday

• Wrong: Faço vinte anos when you only mean “I am twenty.”
• Right: Tenho vinte anos.
• Why: Ter + number + anos states current age. Fazer vinte anos focuses on turning twenty, often with a time expression: Faço vinte anos amanhã.

Usage Notes

European and Brazilian Portuguese

The concept’s forms belong to both major standards, but everyday choices differ. In Portugal, you will often hear tu fazes, fazer desporto, fazer anos, and the progressive estar a fazer. In Brazil, você faz, fazer esporte, fazer aniversário, and estar fazendo are generally more frequent. None of these differences changes the basic meaning of fazer.

Forms of address require some care. In European Portuguese, explicitly addressing someone as você can sound neutral in some situations but distant or awkward in others; speakers often omit the pronoun and use the third-person form, or use a title or name. For an A1 learner, the safest grammatical rule is simply that tu takes fazes, while você, a title, and o senhor / a senhora take faz.

Common combinations

Some expressions are predictable, while others must be learned as vocabulary:

• fazer compras — to shop / do the shopping
• fazer exercício — to exercise
• fazer uma viagem — to take a trip
• fazer uma pausa — to take a break
• fazer barulho — to make noise
• fazer sentido — to make sense
• fazer bem / mal — to be good / bad for someone
• fazer falta — to be needed, to be missed

The noun after fazer may need an article (o, a, um, uma) or no article, depending on the established phrase. Compare fazer uma pergunta with fazer exercício. Memorising a short example sentence is more reliable than memorising the bare noun.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master these points at A1, but fazer remains important in later grammar.

Its past participle (a verb form used in compound tenses and some passive constructions) is feito, not fazido: Já fiz o trabalho means “I already did the work,” while O trabalho está feito means “The work is done.” The simple past is also irregular: fiz, fizeste, fez, fizemos, fizestes, fizeram. Notice the contrast between present ele faz and past ele fez.

Fazer + time expression + que can say how long a situation has continued:

• Faz dois anos que estudo português. — I have been studying Portuguese for two years.
• Não o vejo faz muito tempo. — I haven’t seen him for a long time.

Usage and preferred alternatives vary by region; há dois anos is also common when referring to a point or span in the past. The important beginner warning is that impersonal elapsed-time faz stays singular: Faz dois anos, not fazem dois anos.

At a more advanced level, fazer com que + subjunctive means “to cause” or “to make it so that.” The subjunctive is a set of verb forms used in certain dependent clauses, especially where an outcome is caused, desired, doubted, or not presented as a plain fact:

• A música faz com que as pessoas dancem. — The music makes people dance.

You may also meet fazer-se, a pronominal form whose meaning depends on context: fazer-se entender is “to make oneself understood,” and fez-se tarde means “it became late.” Treat these as later patterns rather than extending the basic “do/make” rule mechanically.

Practice Tips

1. Learn forms in contrasting pairs. Say eu faço, tu fazes, ele faz and then nós fazemos, eles fazem. Add a familiar person or activity to each form instead of reciting endings alone.
2. Build phrase cards, not one-word cards. Record fazer uma pergunta, fazer compras, fazer frio, and fazer anos with a complete sentence. Then cover the Portuguese side and decide which phrase fits the English situation.
3. Choose a listening variety. Notice whether speakers say tu fazes or você faz, estou a fazer or estou fazendo. Understanding both is useful, but consistently imitating one variety will make your own speech more natural.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Regular -ER Verbs — provides the regular present-tense pattern against which the irregular forms of fazer stand out.