How do we express "to make someone late?"

Question

The Week One B2 writing challenge used "mettre" rather than "faire" to say when something (a taxi) made me late ("m'a mis en retard"). Is there a lesson with some examples on using mettre?  Thanks.

Accepted Answer

Bonjour John,
Unfortunately, we don't currently have a lesson on the expression "mettre <quelqu'un> en retard" (to make someone late), but it's an excellent suggestion!
In the meantime, here are a few examples for you to enjoy:"Mon fils me met toujours en retard."    (My son always makes me late.)"Ma voiture est tombée en panne, ce qui m'a mis(e) en retard."    (My car broke down, which made me late.)"Ne me mets pas en retard !"    (Don't make me late!)
I hope that's useful!
A bientôt !

Answer

Bonjour,
can we use "faire" like : "Il m'a fait en retard à cause de sa voiture est en panne"?

Thanks.

Answer

Bonjour Ly Fen !

No, in this context, you cannot use "faire", but you will use the expression "mettre < quelqu'un > en retard".

Answer

There is the expression "mettre du temps" (employer un certain temps)
You may recall in British English that we can use an expression  "to put some time in ..."
So I can see "mettre" translating to "The taxi employed a certain amount of time making you late"

I hope this way of looking at the translation will help you?
Alan

Answer

I'd like to express my frustration with the multiple choice questions that often arise on tests. To me, Kwiziq is getting too caught up in the weeds. I want more big picture questions, a greater variety of new questions rather than having the same question repeated over and over and over. When I leave a question blank I'd like it to go away and perhaps reappear a week or so later. Thanks for considering my feedback.