Today’s lesson covers the verb jouer, meaning “to play”. There’s a key rule for this verb: jouer à is used for sports and games, whereas jouer de is used for musical instruments!
Meaning
Pronunciation with IPA
Example sentences
Meaning
The French verb jouer means to play. It’s used for playing games (e.g., jouer aux cartes – to play cards), sports (e.g., jouer au football – to play soccer), and musical instruments (e.g., jouer du piano – to play the piano).
Pronunciation
Example sentences
Jouer de + musical instrument
For playing musical instruments, use jouer de:
Jouer du + masculine instrument
Jouer de la + feminine instrument
Jouer des + plural instrument
Je joue trois instruments de musique. Je joue du piano, du violon et de la guitare.
I play three musical instruments. I play the piano, the violin and the guitar.
Jouer à + game or sport
For playing games and sports, use jouer à:
Jouer au + masculine game or sport
Jouer à la + feminine game or sport
Jouer aux + plural game or sport
Tu veux jouer aux échecs ? – Non, je veux jouer aux dames.
Do you want to play chess? – No, I want to play checkers.
Martin est un homme très sportif et il adore jouer au football.
Martin is a very athletic man and he loves playing soccer.
This final sentence uses the imperfect tense, which is used to describe past actions which occurred at unspecified times.
Dans le temps, les gamins jouaient toujours à l’exterieur.
Kids used to always play outside back in the day.
Word origin
Jouer comes from jocare (to joke, to jest) in Latin.
Related lessons
- Jouer conjugation charts
- Jouer l’arlésienne (expression)
- Sports vocabulary
- Musical instruments vocabulary
- Card and board games vocabulary
References
