Let's Watch
In France, sports are not associated with school. Nevertheless, French teens love playing sports – especially soccer. They often play in the park in designated areas after school and on the weekends; and they have their favorite teams, too. Some of the most exciting events are when teams play in the World Cup once every four years.
Of course, soccer isn’t the only sport or activity the French love. In this lesson, you will learn how to talk about the various activities you enjoy as well as what your family loves to do. In fact, review the family vocabulary below before you start the lesson.
|
La Famille |
|
|---|---|
| ma mère | my mother |
| mon père | my father |
| mon frère | my brother |
| ma soeur | my sister |
| mon cousin | my (male) cousin |
| ma cousine | my (female) cousin |
| ma tante | my aunt |
| mon oncle | my uncle |
| mon grand-père | my grandfather |
| ma grand-mère | my grandmother |
The first step to talking about what you love to do is to use jouer à, jouer de, or faire de. Watch the video to review how these expressions are used to discuss sports and leisure activities.
Of course, soccer isn’t the only sport or activity the French love. In this lesson, you will learn how to talk about the various activities you enjoy as well as what your family loves to do. In fact, review the family vocabulary below before you start the lesson.
Bonjour!
Aujourd’hui, nous allons voir comment parler des loisirs.
Today, we will see how to discuss leisure activities.
Do you remember the subject pronouns in French?
je, tu, il, elle, nous, vous, ils, elles
You will need them to make sentences.
How about the vocabulary for family members? Do you remember these?
Ma mère – my mother
Mon père – my father
Mon frère – my brother
Ma soeur – my sister
In French, you use the verb jouer and the
preposition à to talk about playing the sport.
Je joue au rugby.
Mon frère joue au football américain.
Ma soeur joue au volleyball.
Mon père et ma mère jouent aux dames.
Jouer is sometimes followed by
au, sometimes by à la, and sometimes by
aux.
This is because à makes contractions with
le and les.
For example:
Je joue à + le football becomes:
Je joue au football.
Here’s another one.
Mes parents jouent à + les dames.
Can you tell what this sentence should be?
Yes! Mes parents jouent aux dames.
the forms à la and à l’ don’t change.
So,
Mon frère joue à la pétanque. is correct just the
way it is.
You use jouer to talk about playing musical
instruments, too. But in that case, you use a different
preposition: de.
For example: Tu joues des cymbales.
Here are some other examples:
Moi et ma mère, nous jouons de la flûte.
Jouez-vous du piano?
Did you notice there are contractions with de as
well?
Here are some examples:
Ma soeur joue du violoncelle.
Mes parents jouent des cymbales.
But there is no contraction with de la or de l’ as in
Je joue de la flûte.
Not all leisure activities use the verb jouer. We
talk about some activities using the verb faire de.
Je fais du kayak.
Mon frère fait du ski.
Comprenez-vous?
Don’t worry if you don’t understand everything yet. Just keep following the lesson, and you will understand everything in the end!
Question
Which verb would you use to say that you play a sport-- jouer à, jouer de, or faire de?
You would use jouer à.
Click to the next screen to learn more about jouer à and how you can use it to talk to your friends.
