‘Jouer à’ or ‘jouer de’? The verb ‘to play’ in French

Saying “to play” in French initially seems straightforward: jouer. However, do you know the difference between jouer à and jouer de? We receive many questions from our Coffee Break community about French verbs with prepositions, such as jouer, as these can be challenging to get to grips with as a French learner.

The tricky part of translating “to play” in French is that we need to take into consideration what it is you are playing. This is because if you are talking about playing a sport or a game, you are going to use one preposition, whereas if you are talking about playing a musical instrument, you are going to use a different preposition.

The Coffee Break French Show is a podcast series for learners of French, in which we cover a whole variety of topics. If French verbs with prepositions is a topic that you find tricky, don’t worry, as in our latest episode, Pierre-Benoît and Max talk about how to translate “to play” in French and choose the correct preposition every time.

So, let’s get into the topic for today, and why not listen along to the podcast episode while you read? At the end of this article, you will also find a free worksheet which will allow you to practise what you learn. C’est parti !

How to say “to play” in French

The verb “to play” in French is jouer. Before we get into prepositions, let’s start by reviewing the conjugation of jouer in the present tense, so that you can use the verb in all its forms.

The good news is that jouer is a regular -er verb in the present tense, which means that it follows the usual pattern of other -er verbs.

jouer conjugation – present tense:

je joue – “I play”
tu joues – “you play” (informal singular)
il/elle/on joue – “he/she/we* play”
nous jouons – “we play”
vous jouez – “you play” (formal singular or informal/formal plural)
ils/elles jouent – “they play”

*The different uses of the on form of verbs is a whole other topic in itself. If you’d like to know more about how to translate the subject pronoun on, you can find another episode of The Coffee Break French Show here.

French verbs with prepositions: ‘jouer à’ vs ‘jouer de’

As we said earlier, getting used to French verbs with prepositions can be challenging. This is because there are many verbs in French that require a preposition following the verb, and that preposition can change the meaning of the verb.

When it comes to the verb jouer, this means that we need to understand the difference between jouer à and jouer de.

Translating “to play” in French: sports and games

When you’re talking about playing a sport or a game in French, you use jouer à. That is to say that we conjugate the verb jouer, add the preposition à, then add the word for the sport or game.

However, we saw in our previous episode of The Coffee Break French Show that prepositions and certain definite articles (le or les) have to undergo changes when they appear side by side. Look out for this as you read through the examples. To review how to combine à + le or à + les you can find that episode here.

Let’s look at some examples of “to play” in French, followed by the preposition à and a sport or game.

First of all, let’s see jouer à followed by sports or games that are feminine singular nouns:

Je joue à la marelle.
I play hopscotch.

Je joue à la pétanque.
I play pétanque.

Next, with sports that are masculine singular nouns:

Je joue au foot.
I play football / soccer.

Je joue au rugby.
I play rugby.

Now, with sports or games that are plural nouns:

Je joue aux fléchettes.
I play darts.

Je joue aux cartes.
I play cards.

Finally, here’s an example with a sport that starts with a vowel. We will therefore see à + l’:

Je joue à l’ultimate frisbee.
I play ultimate frisbee.

In summary, to say “to play” in French, followed by a sport or a game, use jouer à.

Translating “to play” in French: musical instruments

What about playing a musical instrument, rather than a sport or a game? In this case, we’re not going to use jouer à, but jouer de.

Pay attention to how the preposition de combines with the definite articles le and les as you look at the next examples.

Let’s start with jouer de followed by a musical instrument that is a feminine singular noun:

Je joue de la guitare.
I play the guitar.

Now, with a musical instrument that is a masculine singular noun:

Je joue du piano.
I play the piano.

An example of a plural noun for a musical instrument could be:

Je joue des maracas.
I play the maracas.

And one that starts with a vowel:

Je joue de l’accordéon.
I play the accordion.

Remember that nouns that start with a silent h- are treated the same as nouns that start with a vowel. For example:

Je joue de l’harmonica.
I play the harmonica.

However, if a noun starts with an aspirated h-, it is treated the same as nouns that start with a consonant. Here, therefore, we will see the combination of de + le = du:

Je joue du hautbois.
I play the oboe.

To summarise, to say “to play” in French, followed by a musical instrument, use jouer de.

Practising using “to play” in French

Now it’s time to put into practice what we’ve learned about jouer à vs jouer de, as well as about French verbs with prepositions in general, and what happens when the à or de is combined with the definite articles.

Translate the following sentences from English into French to test your knowledge. The answers are at the bottom of this article. Bon courage !

1. My sister plays golf on Saturdays.
2. I play the trombone.
3. My parents play dominoes every night.
4. My friend Paul played drums for six years.

We hope that you found this useful and now know exactly when to use jouer à and when to use jouer de to say “to play” in French.

For further explanation, don’t forget to listen to the podcast version of this lesson with Pierre-Benoît and Max on The Coffee Break French Show. We’ll be releasing more episodes soon, so make sure to subscribe to our podcast feed and our channel on YouTube for more help with your French.

What’s more, if you’d like to receive regular, free email lessons to help you improve your French, you can sign up below. Your next French lesson will arrive straight to your inbox very soon.

Happy Coffee Breaking!

PS. Here are the answers to the translation challenge:

1. Ma sœur joue au golf le samedi.
2. Je joue du trombone.
3. Mes parents jouent aux dominos tous les soirs.
4. Mon ami Paul a joué de la batterie pendant six ans.

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