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Les parents ne jouent pas au tennis.

Les parents ne jouent pas au tennis.
The parents do not play tennis.
From Lesson 18:Regular -er verbs plural (nous parlons, vous parlez, ils parlent)·French

Questions & Answers about Les parents ne jouent pas au tennis.

Why does jouent end in -ent?
Because the subject is Les parents (The parents), which is plural. It acts like the pronoun ils (they). For regular -er verbs like jouer (to play), the ils and elles form always ends in -ent.
How do you pronounce jouent? Do you say the -ent?
No, the -ent ending on plural verbs is completely silent! You pronounce jouent exactly the same way you pronounce the singular forms joue and joues.
How does the negative ne ... pas work here?
To say "do not" in French, you put ne directly before the conjugated verb and pas directly after it. So, "do not play" becomes ne jouent pas.
Why does the sentence say au tennis instead of just tennis?
In French, when you talk about playing a sport or a game, you use the verb jouer followed by à (at/to) and the word for "the" (le, la, or les). Because tennis is masculine, you would expect à le tennis. However, French always shrinks à and le together to make the word au.

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