Je me suis fait cuire des oeufs et ...

engenious e.C1Kwiziq community member

Je me suis fait cuire des oeufs et ...

Asked 6 years ago
CécileNative French expert teacher in KwiziqCorrect answer

Hi Engenious,

Indeed 'Je me suis fait cuire des oeufs' is 'I cooked myself some eggs'.

Without the context it is difficult to comment further but in French-  

Cuire (to cook) is something that only food stuff can do. 

Faire cuire  is what the person does. (to cook something)

and Se faire cuire is to cook /make yourself something (to eat).

Hope this helps!

engenious e.C1Kwiziq community member
In "L'etranger" I assume the writer means "I cooked myself some eggs" rather than "I had some eggs cooked" ??
Chris W.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

The reflexive form of "faire" is used to make the action more indirect, to put some distance between the subject and the verb. At least that's my understanding. So most of the time this is translated as "having something done" rather than doing it oneself. In other cases the distance is more subtle. 

"Je me suis fait cuisiner des œufs" emphasises the fact that it is actually the stove who is cooking the eggs, if you want to look at it this way. Insome versions of US slang there is something similar:

I ate a burger. 

I had myself a burger. 

Mind you, that's the understanding I developped. A native speaker would need to have the final say on this.

-- Chris (not a native speaker).

engenious e. asked:

Je me suis fait cuire des oeufs et ...

Sign in to submit your answer

Don't have an account yet? Join today

Ask a question

Find your French level for FREE

Test your French to the CEFR standard

Find your French level
Let me take a look at that...