French Phrase
La batterie de ma voiture est à plat. Tu peux me la faire démarrer ?
Meaning
The speaker says that the car’s battery is dead (flat) and asks the listener to help start the car. It combines a statement of a problem with a polite request for assistance.
When to use
Use this informal sentence with friends, family members, or a mechanic you know well. It’s appropriate in casual, spoken French when you need a quick favor to get your car moving again.
✦Grammar Breakdown
Labatteriedemavoitureestàplat.Tupeuxmelafairedémarrer?
à plat
An idiomatic expression meaning ‘flat’ or ‘dead’, used for batteries and sometimes for tires.
Faire + infinitif (causative)
The construction ‘faire + infinitive’ expresses causing someone else to do an action; here ‘la faire démarrer’ means ‘to get it started’.
Pronoun order (me la)
When a direct object pronoun (la) and an indirect object pronoun (me) appear together, the indirect pronoun comes first: me la.
Pouvoir (peux)
‘Peux’ is the present‑tense form of pouvoir for ‘tu’, used to ask permission or request help.
Possessive adjective (ma)
‘Ma’ agrees in gender with the noun it modifies (batterie, feminine).
🗨In Conversation
La batterie de ma voiture est à plat. Tu peux me la faire démarrer ?
My car’s battery is flat. Can you start it for me?
Bien sûr, je branche les câbles et on la relance.
Sure, I’ll hook up the jumper cables and we’ll get it going.
✕Common Mistakes
La batterie de ma voiture est à vide.
‘À vide’ is used for fuel tanks, not for batteries.
Tu peux me le faire démarrer ?
The direct object pronoun must agree with ‘batterie’ (feminine), so use ‘la’, not ‘le’.
Tu peux me la faire démarrer ?
In French, the verb and subject are inverted without a space: ‘peux‑tu’. In informal speech the hyphen is often dropped, but the correct written form includes it.
↔Alternatives
Ma batterie est déchargée. Tu peux m’aider à la démarrer ?
My battery is discharged. Can you help me start it?
Le chargeur ne fonctionne plus, tu pourrais me dépanner ?
The charger isn’t working, could you give me a hand?
J’ai la batterie à plat, tu as un démarreur de secours ?
My battery is flat, do you have a jump‑starter?
Cultural Tip
In France, saying a battery is ‘à plat’ is the most common colloquial way to describe a dead car battery. The causative ‘faire + infinitif’ is very natural in everyday speech, but in a formal setting you would replace ‘tu’ with ‘vous’ and perhaps say ‘pourriez‑vous me la faire démarrer ?’. Also, French drivers often keep jumper cables in the trunk for exactly this situation.