j'ai joué
In French, j'ai joué means "I played".
The phrase is used to describe an activity that was performed in the past. When you use joué to talk about playing a game or a sport, you must follow it with the preposition au for masculine sports or à la for feminine sports.
What does it mean word for word?
Literally, j'ai joué means "I have played", which is the standard way to express the completed past tense in French.
How does it change in a sentence?
The past participle joué remains unchanged in gender or number when used with the auxiliary verb avoir in this context.
Did you know?
- While jouer means 'play', it is used for gambling and games of chance. In French, if you say j'ai joué in a casino, you are specifically talking about wagering money rather than just having fun.
- The word jouer is used in the French expression jouer double jeu, which means to be double-crossing or playing a double game.
- French has a unique expression jouer avec le feu which means 'to play with fire'. If you say j'ai joué avec le feu, you are likely describing a dangerous risk you took rather than an actual flame.
Examples in context
- J'ai joué au football.I played football.This sentence is useful for showing how to say you played football using j'ai joué.Tatoeba #457626 by sacredceltic, translation #255512 by CK
- J'ai joué de la flûte.I played the flute.This sentence is useful for showing how to say you played the flute using j'ai joué.Tatoeba #6322008 by Aiji, translation #5859798 by CK
- J'ai joué au baseball.I played baseball.This sentence is useful for showing how to say you played baseball using j'ai joué.Tatoeba #9623733 by Julien_PDC, translation #2246040 by CK
- J'ai joué au tennis hier soir.I played tennis last night.
- 29 more sentences on Tatoeba
Example conversation
Manon and Lucas are talking about their weekend activities.
- ManonQu'est-ce que tu as fait samedi ?What did you do on Saturday?
- LucasJ'ai joué aux jeux vidéo toute la journée.I played video games all day.
- ManonC'est super ! Tu as gagné ?That's great! Did you win?
- LucasOui, j'ai joué très bien.Yes, I played very well.
Sources
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
