Vocabulary
In the last lesson, you learned how to use faire de with a number of expressions. Go back and look at that list if you don’t remember them. Here are a few others to add to your vocabulary list.
| faire du vélo | to bike |
| faire du ski | to go skiing |
| faire du kayak | to go kayaking |
| faire des arts martiaux | to do martial arts |
| faire du shopping | to go shopping |
| faire de la natation | to swim |
| faire de la gymnastique | to do gymnastics |
| faire de l’équitation | to do equestrianism |
Do you remember when to user jouer and when to use faire with an activity? When you do an activity that requires a team, you usually use jouer. When you do an activity individually, you usually use faire.
Do you remember how to conjugate faire? If not, here is a quick reminder of how to conjugate this irregular and very important verb.
| faire | |
|---|---|
| je fais | nous faisons |
| tu fais | vous faites |
| il/elle/on fait | ils/elles font |
Read and study the following examples to see how to use faire de to discuss activities.
Tu fais de + le vélo. = Je fais du vélo.
Elles font de + les arts martiaux. = Elles font
des arts martiaux.
Je fais de l’équitation. = Je fais
de l’équitation. (no change)
Il fait de la natation. = Il fait
de la natation. (no change)
Do you understand how to use the contractions with faire to talk about leisure activities? Do you remember how to tell the difference between jouer and faire? Answer the following question to see.
Question
In general, how can you tell if an activity uses jouer or faire?
Normally, an activity will take faire if it is an individual activity. Jouer is normally used with a team activity/sport.
Now that you’ve reviewed the expressions jouer à, jouer de, and faire de, let’s look at some other verbs that are followed by prepositions.
