Breakdown of Est-ce que tu fais du sport ?
tu
you (informal singular)
est-ce que
is it that / do / does (question marker)
faire
to do, to make
du
some (partitive, masculine)
le sport
the sport / the exercise
faire du sport
to do sport, to exercise
Questions & Answers about Est-ce que tu fais du sport ?
Why do we use fais here to mean "play"?
The verb faire usually means "to do" or "to make". However, in French, you talk about "doing" sports in general rather than "playing" them. Fais is the present tense form that always goes with tu (informal "you").
What exactly does Est-ce que do at the start of the sentence?
Est-ce que is a very common phrase used to turn a regular statement into a yes/no question. It literally translates to "is it that". If you remove it, the rest of the sentence (tu fais du sport) is just the regular statement meaning "you play sports".
Why is there a du before sport? Could I just say "tu fais sport"?
Why is sport singular in the French sentence but plural in the English translation?
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