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Les sports

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“Faire” or “jouer”

The sports you can play are the same in French and English. You can play football, but you can’t play swimming. With the sports you can play, in French, you have the choice to either use “jouer” or “faire” even if French native speakers will prefer to use “faire” since “jouer” is only used if you are playing or have planned to play.  For the sports you can’t play, “faire” must be used.

With “faire”

The verb “faire” is followed by the partitive articles “du, de la, de l’, des” according to the gender and the numeral of the sport.

For example:
Je fais du football → I do football/ I play football.

With “jouer”

The verb “jouer” is followed by the contracted articles “au, à la, à l, aux’” according to the gender and the numeral of the sport.

For example:
Je joue au football → I play football.

French English
L’athlétisme (masculine) Athletics
L’aviron (masculine) Rowing
L’équitation (feminine) Horse riding
L’escalade (feminine) Climbing
La course à pied Running
La danse Dance
La natation Swimming
La planche à voile Windsurfing
La plongée sous-marine Scuba diving
La randonnée Hiking
Le badminton Badminton
Le basket-ball Basketball
Le cyclisme Cycling
Le football Football
Le golf Golf
Le handball Handball
Le hockey Hockey
Le judo Judo
Le karaté Karate
Le rugby Rugby
Le ski Skiing
Le snowboard Snowboarding
Le surf Surfing
Le tennis Tennis
Le tennis de table Table tennis
Le tir à l’arc Archery
Le volley-ball Volleyball
Les arts martiaux (masculine) Martial arts

Notes

“Le tennis de table” is also called “le ping-pong.” In the spoken language, “le football” can be shortened to “le foot,” “le handball” to “le hand,” “le volley-ball” to “le volley” and le “basket-ball” to “le basket.”

“Le cyclisme” is the sport, if you want to say that you cycle use “faire du vélo.”

More in the books

Werther you are learning by yourself, with Anais and Co or if you are a FLE teacher find this lesson and many more in a beautiful book.

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