Faire vs rendre

I'm a little stuck.

I've came across this rule on the internet.

When "to make" means "to cause to be/feel" you usually* use faire when what follows is a noun (in French) and rendre when it's an adjective.

So, is this a good rule to follow and i'm little confused what happens when a noun and an adjective both follow?

For example. I've used a translator to translate this.

Les différents caractères rend l'exposition plus intéressante.

Why is it rendre? When what follows is a noun?

Any other help would be appreciated. Thank you.

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Permalink Reply by Jim A. on September 11, 2010 at 4:57pm

Hi Luke,
This is a great question. First I'll address your example.

Les différents caractères rend l'exposition plus intéressante.

It's important not to follow the word order strictly in this case. It's the end result that is important, not necessarily what word comes after the verb.
In this case, the result is that the exposition(introduction) is being made more interesting (an adjective), and not into another noun. Rendre is the correct verb here.

I think the confusion for English speakers is that "make" has so many different, non-interchangeable meanings. In these cases, it's useful to replace the word "make" with a synonym. If "make" can also mean "create", "build", "fabricate", or another similar word, it translates to "faire"
If it can be changed to "cause someone/something to become (something)", use rendre.

I hope this helps!

Jim