In French, we use “faire” and “jouer” to talk about a hobby, a sport, a game or an activity. It can be challenging for a French learner to understand the difference. That is why I have made this article especially for you so you will never make the mistake again.
Conjugating “Faire” and “Jouer” in French
The verb “Faire”
The verb “Faire” is irregular, that means there is no clue to help you conjugating it, you will need to learn. Here is the verb “Faire” at the present simple tense.
Je fais Tu fais Il/elle/on fait
Nous faisons Vous faites Ils/elles font
To indicate you do a certain activity we will say “faire de”. In French, all nouns are either masculine or feminine so you will have an article before the sport or activity you want to talk about. But how does it work with “de” in front of the article? “Faire de le vélo” does not make any sense. We will see together the contractions later in this article.
First of all, if you have not done it yet, I highly recommend you to read also my article “Gender of French nouns: how to overcome this difficulty?“
The verb “Jouer”
The verb “Jouer” is a regular verb, yes! I bet you feel relieved 😉
All the verbs finishing by “er” in French except the verb “aller” will have the same ending when conjugating them. You remove “er” at the end of the infinitive verb and you add the below endings in blue.
Let’s see that with the present simple tense.
Je joue Tu joues Il/elle/on joue
Nous jouons Vous jouez Ils/elles jouent
In French, to express the fact you play a game, you will use “jouer à”. Please note that we also use “jouer” to talk about a musical instrument “jouer du violon” (“to play violin” in English).
Let’s see now the contractions “jouer à” and “faire du”.
The contractions
When you add the preposition “de” or ” à” and a definite article “le”, “la”, “l'”, “les”, the preposition will change depending on the number and gender of the noun.
de + le = du de + la = de la de + l' = de l' de + les = des
à + le = au à + la = à la à + l' = à l' à + les = aux
Difference between “faire” and “jouer”
Now we have seen the basic knowledge, let’s enter in the main subject and discuss about this difference and give some examples.
In French, when you use “faire de” it is to talk about an activity. It is not a game, it does not involve a ball or a team.
We use “jouer à” to talk about a game that involves a team and a bat, a stick, a club or a ball.
Je joue (à + le) football = Je joue au football Nous jouons (à + la) pétanque = Nous jouons à la pétanque Ils jouent (à + les) échecs = Ils jouent aux échecs
Je fais (de + le) vélo = Je fais du vélo Nous faisons (de + la) danse = Nous faisons de la danse Ils font (de + l') équitation = Ils font de l'équitation
Let me know in the comments (in French) what is your favourite sport or activity? Feel free to share this article!
A bientôt!