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Household chores with 'faire le', 'la', 'les'

When talking about daily household chores, English uses a variety of verbs. We wash the dishes, cook dinner, make the bed, and do the laundry. French makes this much easier by relying on a single, highly versatile verb for almost all of these tasks: faire.

To talk about domestic chores in French, you will typically use faire (to do or to make) followed by a definite article (le, la, or les) and a noun. Expressions like faire la vaisselle and faire les courses are fixed phrases, meaning the definite article is an essential part of the construction.

Word list
faire la cuisineA1 to cook faire la cuisine = to do the cooking litmA1 bed faire le lit = to make the bed faire la lessiveB1 to do the laundry faire la lessive = to do the laundry faire la vaisselleB1 to do the dishes faire la vaisselle = to do the dishes faire les coursesB1 to do the shopping faire les courses = to do the grocery shopping ménagemB1 housework faire le ménage = to do the housework poussièrefB1 dust faire la poussière = to dust tâches ménagèresfB1 housework faire les tâches ménagères = to do the household chores carreaumB2 windowpane faire les carreaux = to clean the windows commissionfB2 errand faire les commissions = to do the shopping, run the errands vitrefB2 windowpane faire les vitres = to clean the windows
The basic construction

The formula for these expressions is always faire + definite article + noun. Even when English uses completely different verbs like "cook" or "wash", French sticks to this pattern. For example, the French expression for cooking is literally "to do the kitchen" (faire la cuisine), and washing up is "to do the dishes" (faire la vaisselle).

Mon père aime faire la cuisine le dimanche.
(My father likes to cook on Sundays.)
C'est ton tour de faire la vaisselle ce soir.
(It is your turn to do the dishes tonight.)
Nous allons faire la vaisselle après le dîner.
(We are going to wash the dishes after dinner.)
When the noun is the core word

Sometimes you only know the noun, such as ménage (housework) or lit (bed). To talk about performing these tasks, you simply apply the same rule and add faire le in front of them.

Notice how English says "to make the bed", but French uses the exact same verb it uses for chores, which is faire.

Nous devons faire le ménage avant l'arrivée des invités.
(We have to do the housework before the guests arrive.)
Je fais le lit tous les matins.
(I make the bed every morning.)
Il déteste faire le ménage le week-end.
(He hates doing household chores on the weekend.)
Laundry and shopping

The rule applies to out-of-house chores and washing clothes too. The expression faire les courses means "to do the shopping". It generally refers to running routine errands, especially grocery shopping. Similarly, faire la lessive is the standard way to say "to do the laundry".

Je déteste faire les courses le samedi matin.
(I hate doing the shopping on Saturday mornings.)
Tu peux faire les courses pour la semaine ?
(Can you do the grocery shopping for the week?)
Elle fait la lessive le dimanche.
(She does the laundry on Sundays.)
Summary

When discussing household chores in French, remember the formula: faire + definite article (le, la, les) + noun. This fixed construction replaces a wide variety of English verbs like "wash", "cook", and "make", keeping your French domestic vocabulary simple and consistent.