The verbs Fare and Rendere

In the following article called The verbs Fare and Rendere, I am going to talk about two verbs that can both be translated “to make”. Their meaning is not the same, and in today’s article, I will explain these two verbs and in particular Rendere, because it is less known.

If you want to learn more about the Italian language, keep reading!

As you already know, I often write inspired by the conversations and questions my students ask me. And even in this case, I could not do otherwise. I decided to write this article after listening to one of my students say: “Parlare in Italiano mi fa la vita più semplice!”. This sentence could be translated with: “Speaking Italian makes my life easier!”.

Well, the message this girl wanted to express is clear. All Italians and not would have grasped it, but the form she used can be improved. Are you wondering why? Read on and find it out!

Rendere as To make

The verb to make is a verb that, like many others, in Italian can have more than one meaning, but in this text, I want to focus on one particular case: Rendere as To make.

We all know that the English verb to make in Italian means Fare. This is true in the majority of cases, but if using the verb to make, we intend to make people feel, become, or reach a certain state, we should use Rendere and not Fare.

Let’s try to analyze the sentence written at the beginning of the text:

“Parlare in italiano mi fa la vita più facile!”.

In this case, my student by using the verb Fare meant to simplify, to make life easier. For this reason, she would have to use the verb Rendere. In fact, saying “Parlare in italiano mi rende la vita più facile!“, is a more correct phrase than the previous one, and I guarantee you that it sounds even better.

But let’s make other examples!

• If we wanted to modernize our home to make it more beautiful and welcoming, we could say:

Voglio comprare dei mobili nuovi per rendere la mia casa più bella! (I want to buy new furniture to make my home more beautiful!)

• If we wanted to tell our partner we like being with him or her, we would say:

Mi rendi felice! (You make me happy!)

• If we wanted to express the opposite thing by saying that life with this person is terrible, we could use the following expression:
  “Tu mi mi stai rendendo la vita un inferno!” (You are making my life hell!)

Fare or Rendere?

In Italian, we use the verb Fare to express things a little more concrete than the verb Rendere. Rendere instead, is used to talk about more subjective things. Let’s see these examples:

• Ho fatto una ristrutturazione della mia casa al mare! (I did a renovation of my beach house!)
• Voglio rendere la mia casa al mare più accogliente mediante una ristrutturazione! (I want to make my beach house more welcoming through a renovation!)

Here in the first sentence, the verb Fare indicates that works to improve and modernize the house have actually been carried out.
In the second sentence, however, there is an idea of something you want to do but, it has not been done yet, and it is not known whether this renovation will be carried out and completed.

A little tip

Let’s try now to replace the verb Rendere with the words seen previously: to make people feel, to become, and reach a certain state (of well-being or not).

• Cerco di rendere il più facile possibile la lezione sul verbo rendere. (I try to make the lesson about the verb Rendere as easy as possible).

In this case, Rendere means making the lesson simple, simplifying it, (the lesson becomes simple).

• Mio figlio mi rende orgogliosa! (My son makes me proud!)

The phrase means my son makes me feel good, proud of him.

• Dobbiamo rendere di dominio pubblico i risultati di questa ricerca. (We need to make the results of this research public).

Also in the latter case, the verb Renderer indicates to make the results public, making them accessible to all.

Conclusion

The verb Rendere as a translation of to make is not always so automatic. Even students with a good level of Italian can find this word difficult and get stuck. Often they are unable to understand whether to use Fare or Rendere or why the choice they made in a particular sentence is not the best.

Don’t worry so much, it’s just a matter of practice!

In this article, I gave you some tips that I hope will help you to integrate the word Rendere into your conversations. I want you to practice writing something, and after checking out if the sentences are correct by using the word substitutions, just like I did!

Read this text in Italian!

Learn more about the verb Fare!

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