--- title: Hobbies and sport — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Hobbies and sport», a lesson of the french course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: So you say je joue au football, but je joue du piano, and je fais du vélo - a bit like how English says "play football" but "go cycling". --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/23-hobbies-and-sport/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [French](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/) / Hobbies and sport # Hobbies and sport Lesson 23 of the french course of Mova's primary school: 16 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/french/23-hobbies-and-sport/). - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/23-hobbies-and-sport/1/) — So you say je joue au football, but je joue du piano, and je fais du vélo - a bit like how English says "play football" but "go cycling". - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/23-hobbies-and-sport/2/) — Picture a sunny campsite in the south of France: grandads and kids throw heavy metal balls at a tiny wooden one called le cochonnet, the piglet, and shout "Bravo !" when one lands close - that is la pétanque. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/23-hobbies-and-sport/3/) — When you like doing something, the doing word stays in its base form after j'aime: j'aime danser, j'aime nager, j'aime lire - never "j'aime dance". - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/23-hobbies-and-sport/4/) — Young French people say "C'est trop bien !" when something is really great, and in the playground they shout "On joue à chat !", which is tag, not a game about pets. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/23-hobbies-and-sport/5/) — For sports and games French says jouer à: je joue au football, je joue au tennis, je joue aux cartes. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/23-hobbies-and-sport/6/) — For musical instruments French says jouer de: je joue du piano, je joue de la guitare, je joue du violon. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/23-hobbies-and-sport/7/) — Some activities use faire de: je fais du vélo (I go cycling), je fais de la natation (I go swimming), je fais du judo, je fais du surf; if you don't know the verb for a sport, je fais du + the sport (je fais du skate) is a safe trick. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/23-hobbies-and-sport/8/) — Some sports have their own verb: nager means to swim, so je nage means I swim. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/23-hobbies-and-sport/10/) — La pétanque is a French game of throwing metal balls close to a small wooden ball called le cochonnet (the piglet); children play it too. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/23-hobbies-and-sport/11/) — Je lis means I read; it comes from lire and the s is silent, so it sounds like "zhuh LEE". - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/23-hobbies-and-sport/12/) — Popular sports in France include football, rugby, tennis, cycling, handball and judo; baseball is rare there. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/23-hobbies-and-sport/13/) — The Tour de France is a famous cycling race held every July that finishes in Paris. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/23-hobbies-and-sport/14/) — Le maillot jaune is the yellow jersey worn by the rider leading the whole race, not a team colour. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/23-hobbies-and-sport/15/) — After j'aime the verb stays in its base form: j'aime danser, j'aime nager, j'aime lire. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/23-hobbies-and-sport/16/) — In France tag is called chat: "On joue à chat !" means "Let's play tag!", and whoever is "it" is le chat. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/23-hobbies-and-sport/17/) — Other playground games: cache-cache (hide and seek) and la marelle (hopscotch). - ← previous: [The town and directions](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/22-the-town-and-directions/) - next →: [Likes and dislikes: j'aime, je n'aime pas](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/24-likes-and-dislikes/) - ↑ back to [French](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/)