gymnastique
/ʒim.nas.tik/feminine
Gymnastics in French is gymnastique.
gymnastique is a feminine noun used to refer to the sport of gymnastics. If you wish to refer to the person performing the sport, use gymnaste.
Meaning: a sport (noun)
How does it change in a sentence?
The noun is feminine and is almost always used with the definite article la.
How do you pronounce it?
The word has 3 syllables and is pronounced /ʒim.nas.tik/.
What mistakes should you avoid?
English speakers often mistakenly add an 's' to the end of the word, but in French, gymnastique is singular even when referring to the sport as a whole.
Did you know?
- The Greek root of gymnastique refers to 'nakedness', as the ancient athletes performed their exercises without clothing.
- While gymnastique is the sport, the word gymnaste is an epicene noun, meaning it has the same form for both men and women.
- The term gymnastique douce describes a specific category of low-impact exercise designed for seniors or people in rehabilitation.
Examples in context
- Il est bon en gymnastique.He is good at gymnastics.Tatoeba #4710927 by sacredceltic, translation #295049 by CK
- La musique est à l'âme ce que la gymnastique est au corps.Music is to the soul what gymnastics is to the body.Tatoeba #10212774 by lbdx, translation #2081534 by JonLDS
- Au début, j'ai détesté la gymnastique à la radio, mais maintenant je ne la déteste pas autant.In the beginning, I hated gymnastics with radio, but now I don't hate it so much.Tatoeba #1982727 by nimfeo, translation #7681756 by ouitroisheures19
- Je fais de la gymnastique depuis cinq ans.I have been doing gymnastics for five years.
- Elle adore la gym artistique, surtout la poutre.She loves artistic gymnastics, especially the balance beam.
- Ils ont remporté la médaille d'or en gym acro.They won the gold medal in acrobatic gymnastics.
- 2 more sentences on Tatoeba
Example conversation
Gabriel and Chloé are talking about their weekly hobbies.
- GabrielTu fais quoi après le travail ?What are you doing after work?
- ChloéJe vais à mon cours de gymnastique.I am going to my gymnastics class.
- GabrielC'est génial, Chloé, tu es très sportive !That's great, Chloé, you are very athletic!
- ChloéMerci, c'est un excellent exercice.Thanks, it is an excellent exercise.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “gymnastics” translations and entries gymnastique, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries gymnastique, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
