Learn French: Le mercredi, nous jouons au football. - On Wednesdays, we play football.

Le mercredi, nous jouons au football.

On Wednesdays, we play football.

Breakdown of Le mercredi, nous jouons au football.

nous

we / us (object pronoun)

jouer

to play

to the / at the (masculine singular)

le football

the football / the soccer

Questions & Answers about Le mercredi, nous jouons au football.

Why does the French sentence use Le mercredi (singular) when the English translation says "Wednesdays" (plural)?

In French, you express a recurring habit on a specific day of the week by putting the singular article le (the) before the day. So, le mercredi literally means "the Wednesday," but it is how French speakers say "on Wednesdays" or "every Wednesday."

Could I use the word for "on" and say sur mercredi instead?

No, this is a common trap for English speakers! In French, you never use sur (on) with days of the week. To say an event happens on a specific day, you just use the day itself (mercredi = on Wednesday) or le plus the day for a recurring event (le mercredi = on Wednesdays).

Why is mercredi written with a lowercase 'm'?

Unlike in English, days of the week are not capitalized in French unless they are the very first word of a sentence. Since it comes after Le here, it starts with a lowercase letter.

Why is it au football instead of just jouons le football?

In French, when you talk about playing a sport or a game, you must use the verb jouer followed by the word à (at/to). Because football is a masculine word, you would normally say le football. However, in French, à and le must combine to form the single word au. Therefore, jouer à le football becomes jouer au football.