Log inSign up

Nous jouons au basket au stade.

Nous jouons au basket au stade.
We play basketball at the stadium.
From Lesson 244:Jobs, school and sport·French

Questions & Answers about Nous jouons au basket au stade.

Why do we use au before basket when in English we just say "play basketball"?
In French, the verb jouer (to play) requires the preposition à when referring to sports and games. Because basket is a masculine noun, à and the article le combine to form the contraction au.
Would the preposition change if we were playing a musical instrument instead of a sport?
Yes! While you use jouer à for sports and board games, you must use jouer de for musical instruments. If you were playing the piano, it would be Nous jouons du piano because de and le contract into du.
Is it a coincidence that au appears twice in this sentence for two different reasons?
Exactly. The first au is grammatically required by the verb jouer for a sport. The second au is a standard preposition of location meaning "at the", where à and the masculine noun le stade contract into au stade.
Is basket the complete word for the sport in French?
The official borrowed word is basket-ball, but in everyday spoken French, it is almost always shortened to just le basket. You will see the exact same habit with soccer, which is commonly called le foot.

Learn Nous jouons au basket au stade and more in French

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
  • ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free
Start learning French →