jouer
/ʒwe/
The French word jouer means to play.
How you use it depends on whether you are talking about a game or an instrument. You use jouer à when referring to a game or a sport, and jouer de when mentioning a musical instrument.
Which one should you use?
While English speakers use the single verb 'play' for both games and musical instruments, French requires a distinction: use jouer à for games and sports (for example, jouer au football or jouer aux cartes) and use jouer de for musical instruments (for example, jouer du piano or jouer de la guitare).
Is it said differently in some regions?
In French-speaking Canada, the phrase Faire des parties is commonly used to mean 'to have gaming sessions'.
How does it change in a sentence?
The past participle of jouer is joué, which is used with the auxiliary verb avoir to form compound tenses such as the passé composé.
How do you pronounce it?
/ʒwe/
Did you know?
- The verb jouer shares its DNA with the English word 'joke', as both descend from the Latin 'iocari', meaning 'to sport' or 'to jest'.
- When talking about gambling, jouer often means 'to bet'. For example, jouer sa vie means 'to gamble with one's life' rather than 'to play with one's life'.
- The expression jouer les prolongations literally means 'to play extra time' in sports, but it is commonly used in daily life to mean 'to prolong a situation' or 'to overstay one's welcome'.
Examples in context
- Je joue au tennis.I play tennis.
- Il joue de la guitare.He plays the guitar.
- Je m'éclate en jouant au basketball.I have a blast playing basketball.
- On se marre bien en jouant aux jeux de société.We have a good laugh while playing board games.
- Il joue du violon.He plays the violin.
- Ils jouent au tennis.They are playing tennis.
- On peut jouer dehors ?Can we play outside?
- Je veux jouer avec toi.I want to play with you.
- Il est temps de jouer.It is time to play.
Example conversation
Hugo and Manon are in the living room deciding what to do.
- HugoManon, on peut jouer ?Manon, can we play?
- ManonOui, on peut jouer aux cartes.Yes, we can play cards.
- HugoD'accord, je vais chercher les cartes.Okay, I am going to get the cards.
- ManonSuper, j'adore jouer aux cartes !Great, I love playing cards!
Sources
- Pronunciation: Wiktionary entry jouer, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries jouer, CC BY-SA 4.0.
