French Lesson: When To Use “faire” Vs.. “jouer Au” When Speaking About Sports

Speaking about sports in French isn’t tricky if you know a few essential tricks.
 

When speaking about sports in French it can get a little tricky. In English, you would simply say I play, I like, I love a sport, however, in French, there are a few variations and you need to know when each applies, as they aren’t interchangeable.

For example, in French, you would say playing or doing a sport.

Jouer au (playing)… is used with the following sports:
 

…base-ball (baseball)
…volley (volleyball)
…basket (basketball)
…hockey (hockey)
…tennis (tennis)
…golf (golf)

Sentence example: J’aime jouer au basket pendant l’été. (I

like to play basketball during the summer.)
As you may have noticed, these are all sports which are either played in teams or with multiple people at a time.

Faire (doing)… is used with the following sports:

…du cheval (horseback riding)
…du ski (ski)
…du patinage (skating)
…du jogging (jogging)
…de la natation (swimming)

Sentence example: J’aime faire de la natation avec mes amis. (I like swimming with my friends.)
Sports that are spoken about using the verb ‘faire’ are all individual sports.

An easy way to remember when to use

‘jouer au’ versus ‘faire’ is to think of whether you would add the word play, in front of the sport when speaking about it in English. For example, in English you would say ‘I like to play baseball’, but you wouldn’t say ‘I like to play skating’, rather you would simply say ‘I like skating’. Therefore if you would use the verb play before the sport in English, then you would use ‘jouer au’ in French instead of ‘faire’.

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