French: Hobbies and sports

Many of the verbs or action words that you use to describe your hobbies in French end in -er in the infinitive.

A verb infinitive is the basic form of a verb. For example, 'to sing' is the infinitive form of a verb. You can recognise an infinitive in English as it begins with to.

In French, you can spot an infinitive by looking at the end of the verb. All French infinitives end in either -er, -ir or -re.

For example, the infinitive of the verb 'to sing' is chanter in French. As it ends in -er, it is called an -er verb.

Here are some other regular -er verbs that you can use:

In French, the spelling of a verb changes depending on who is doing the action. All the above verbs are regular which means that they follow the same pattern of spelling changes at the end of the verb.

Once you learn how to say and write one of them, it will help you say and write others.

To use the verbs above, you remove the -er from the infinitive of the verb to make the stem and add the following endings:

So jouer (to play) becomes je joue (I play).

For example:

Je joue – I play

Tu joues – You play

Elle joue – She plays

Il joue – He plays

Did you notice that the verbs all sound the same? This is because e and s on the end of a word are silent.

Here’s a table to help you to work out what the ending should be when you’re writing about your hobbies.

This uses the verb danser (to dance) as an example, but this pattern works with all regular -er verbs.

You can talk about what you do:

Je danse – I dance

Je dessine – I draw

And what you don’t:

Je ne danse pas – I don’t dance

Je ne dessine pas – I don’t draw

Did you notice that to say what you don’t do, you add ne or n’ (before a vowel) before the verb and pas after it?

Did you know?

If you’re talking about playing an instrument, you use the phrase jouer de (to play).

The de changes its spelling depending on whether the instrument is masculine or feminine.

Before masculine nouns, it is du and before feminine nouns, it is de la.

If you’re talking about playing a sport or a computer game, you use the phrase jouer à.

The à changes depending on whether the noun is masculine, feminine or plural.

Most sports nouns are masculine so we use au. As ‘computer games’ are plural, we use aux.

How to use the verb ‘faire’ in French

To say that you play sport, you need the phrase faire du sport.

Faire is an irregular verb. Irregular verbs don’t follow particular patterns like regular verbs do, so you need to memorise them.

Use the table below to help you:

Did you notice that all the verbs for je, tu, elle and il all sound the same? That is because the letters s and t on the end of the word are silent.

You can also use faire to say:

Je fais du vélo – I ride a bike

Je fais du ski – I ski

Je fais du surf – I surf

If you want to talk about what you like doing in your spare time, you can use the verb aimere – to like.

It is a regular -er verb and you use it with the infinitive of a verb.

J’aime dansere – I like to dance

J’aime dessinere – I like to draw

J’aime écouter de la musiquee – I like to listen to music

J’aime jouer au tennise – I like to play tennis

J’aime nagere – I like to swim

To ask whether someone else likes a certain activity, you use the tu (you) form of aimer which is tu aimes. Then you add the verb for the activity in the infinitive, for example danser.

Then you use rising intonation at the end of the statement. This means that your voice goes up at the end of a sentence, turning it into a question:

Tu aimes danser ? – Do you like dancing?

Tu aimes nager ? – Do you like swimming?

You can also ask:

Qu’est-ce que tu aimes faire comme loisirs ? – What do you like to do as a hobby?

You can also talk about what you want to do. You need the verb vouloir - ‘to want to’.

Vouloir is an irregular verb and it is followed by the infinitive of a verb.

Look at the endings of the verb below:

Je veux danser – I want to dance

Tu veux danser – You want to dance

Elle veut danser – She wants to dance

Il veut danser – He wants to dance

Did you notice that the different forms of ‘want’ all sound the same?

This is because the letters x and t are silent on the end of the words.

To change these phrases to a question, use rising intonation like this:

Tu veux danser ? – Do you want to dance?

You can ask other questions.

Tu veux nager ? – Do you want to swim?

Tu veux écouter de la musique ? – Do you want to listen to music?

Below are some important French sounds that you have heard in this topic. Try practising them yourself out loud.

e before one consonant

The letter e at the start of the word regarder sounds like er at the end of 'mother'.

The letter e makes this sound when followed by one consonant. When followed by two consonants, it makes a different sound.

regarder - to watch

é, er

Many of the verbs to describe hobbies end in -er. The sound for these letters at the end of a word is a short, sharp sound, which you might use to attract someone's attention. é, -es, -ez and et also make the same sound.

jouer – to play

dessiner – to draw

écouter – to listen

gu before e, i or y

Gu before these vowels make the English g sound.

la guitare – the guitar

Don’t forget that the e at the end of the word is silent.