Learn French: Est-ce que tu fais du sport ?

Est-ce que tu fais du sport ?

Do you play sports?

Breakdown of Est-ce que tu fais du sport ?

you (informal singular)

est-ce que

is it that / do / does (question marker)

faire

to do, to make

some (partitive, masculine)

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"?

In French, you usually need a little word (an article) before a noun; you cannot just leave it bare. Du means "some" (it is a combination of de + le). When talking about activities or uncountable things, you use it to say you are doing some amount of that activity.

Why is sport singular in the French sentence but plural in the English translation?

In English, it is natural to say "I play sports" in the plural. In French, athletic activity as a general concept is treated as a singular, uncountable thing. So, faire du sport is the standard way to refer to working out or playing sports in general.