French sentence structure N faire de N N is shown to present a three-way ambiguity, according to the use of the verb faire: ordinary transitive and support (or light) faire constitute a transitive structure, but the third one, "causative operator faire", makes a peculiar one in which a direct nominal (N) functions, not as a direct object, but as a indirect object (de N) complement. As an operator, the verb takes as "operand" a particular type of copular sentence, i.e. identificational type, on the contrary to rendre and mettre, well-known causative verbs, applied only to predicational type. faire, rendre and mettre are in complementary distribution. Different possibilities of causative operators for different types of copular sentences are also discussed.