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I've been recently studying French sport words and I've encountered two ways in which one can talk about a sport. For example: "faire de la natation" and "jouer au foot." Now there are two questions, first, do we use (de, de la, d' and des) when we "do" (faire) a sport. Secondly, when we say "jouer" then do (au, a la, a l' or aux)?

Ishmam Chowdhury
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    Quickly: « Faire + de + quelque chose », and « jouer à + quelque chose » when there is a kind of amusement, game. Note then, that « de + le => du », « à + le => au ». In swimming, there is no "game" part, even if you can find it entertaining, I won't say that it's not. – Larme May 16 '16 at 16:24
  • My learning taught a difference between team (jouer à) and individual (faire de) sports, but im not sure thats a good enough general rule – D. Ben Knoble May 16 '16 at 18:19
  • Ishmam: The link to the duplicate question is in the header above the question body. – Stéphane Gimenez May 17 '16 at 10:13
  • I'm wondering: It's possible to say "Viens jouer au foot avec nous", and "Tu fais du foot toi ?". It doesn't have the same meaning but you can say both... Whereas you can't say "Viens jouer au judo"... – Random May 17 '16 at 13:08
  • @BenKnoble note that "jouer à" is not necessary for team sport (e.g. tennis). I think that a better rule would be "faire de" + "any sport" and "jouer à " + "any sport with a ball " – radouxju May 18 '16 at 08:26
  • @radouxju you may say "Je joues aux echecs" which has no ball... seems like rules for this are tricky... – Random May 18 '16 at 13:53
  • @Random I don't consider chess as a sport (an activity involving physical exertion and skill) but as a game (even if there are competitions, like for poker etc, and it is sometimes called "sport cérébral"). There are of course exceptions if you take "ball" too litterally (badminton or ultimate frisbee have no "true ball"), but French without exception is not French. – radouxju May 19 '16 at 06:01

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