Learn Hardcore French: Paul joue au football avec ses amis le samedi. - Paul plays football with his friends on Saturdays.

Jouer (with -er) is the infinitive form, like to play in English. You only use that after another verb (e.g. aimer jouer, vouloir jouer), not directly with a subject like Paul.

Does Paul joue mean Paul plays or Paul is playing?

It can mean both, depending on context.

French usually uses the simple present (Paul joue) to express:

a general habit: Paul joue au football le samedi. → Paul plays football on Saturdays.
something happening right now (especially in speech): Qu’est-ce que Paul fait ? – Il joue au football. → He is playing football.

French does have a progressive-style form: être en train de + infinitive:

Paul est en train de jouer au football. → Paul is in the middle of playing football (right now).

But in many everyday situations, French just uses the simple present joue where English uses both plays and is playing.

Why is it joue au football and not joue le football?

With sports and games, French normally uses jouer à (play at), not jouer le.

Structure:

jouer à + definite article + name of the sport / game

So:

jouer à + le football → jouer au football (because à + le contracts to au)
jouer à + la pétanque → jouer à la pétanque
jouer à + les cartes → jouer aux cartes (because à + les → aux)

Using jouer le football is ungrammatical in standard French.

What exactly is au in au football?

Au is a contraction of the preposition à and the masculine singular article le:

à + le = au

So literally, jouer au football = jouer à le football (but you must contract it to au).

Similar contractions:

à + les = aux → jouer aux cartes
à + la stays à la → jouer à la pétanque
à + l’ stays à l’ → jouer à l’ordinateur

What’s the difference between jouer à and jouer de?

jouer à is used for sports and games:
- jouer au football – to play football
- jouer au tennis – to play tennis
- jouer aux échecs – to play chess
jouer de is used for musical instruments:
- jouer du piano – to play the piano
- jouer de la guitare – to play the guitar
- jouer du violon – to play the violin

So you say Paul joue au football, not joue du football.

Why is it avec ses amis, not avec ses ami or avec son amis?

A few things are happening here:

Plural of ami
- Singular: un ami – a (male) friend
- Plural: des amis – (male or mixed) friends
  You must add an -s to make it plural in writing: amis.
Possessive adjective agreement
The possessive adjective (son / sa / ses) agrees with the thing owned, not with the owner.
- un ami → son ami (his/her friend)
- une amie → son amie (his/her (female) friend)
- des amis / des amies (plural) → *ses amis / ses amies (his/her friends)
Here, amis is plural, so you must use ses (plural) → ses amis.
Why not son amis?
- son is singular, amis is plural – they don’t agree, so it’s incorrect.

So avec ses amis = with his friends (or with her friends, depending on context; French doesn’t show the owner’s gender here).

Why amis and not amies? What’s the difference?

ami / amis: male friend / male or mixed group of friends
amie / amies: female friend / all-female group of friends

In writing:

un ami – a (male) friend
une amie – a female friend
des amis – at least one male in the group, or gender unspecified
des amies – only women in the group

So ses amis could mean:

his male friends
his mixed group of friends
her male or mixed group of friends

If you wanted to insist it’s only female friends, you’d say ses amies.

What does le add in le samedi? Why not just samedi?

Le samedi usually means on Saturdays, every Saturday (a repeated, habitual action).

Paul joue au football le samedi.
→ Paul plays football on Saturdays (as a habit).

Without the article, samedi on its own is more like on Saturday, referring to a specific Saturday (often understood from context):

Paul joue au football samedi.
→ Paul is playing football on Saturday (this coming Saturday / that Saturday).

So:

le samedi = on Saturdays (in general, regularly)
samedi = on Saturday (one particular Saturday)

Could you also say les samedis instead of le samedi?

Yes, les samedis can also mean on Saturdays in the plural sense:

Paul joue au football les samedis.
→ Paul plays football on Saturdays.

However, in practice:

le samedi is more common for talking about a regular habit.
les samedis can sound a bit more emphatic, or like a schedule listing (e.g. in announcements, posters, etc.).

For everyday speech about a routine, le samedi is the usual choice.

Can the word order change, like Le samedi, Paul joue au football avec ses amis?

Yes. Time expressions are quite flexible in French.

All of these are correct and natural:

Paul joue au football avec ses amis le samedi.
Le samedi, Paul joue au football avec ses amis.
Paul, le samedi, joue au football avec ses amis. (more marked / stylistic)

Putting Le samedi at the beginning often emphasizes the time:

Le samedi, Paul joue au football…
→ You’re highlighting when he plays.

The most neutral are usually:

Paul joue au football avec ses amis le samedi.
Le samedi, Paul joue au football avec ses amis.

How is joue au football avec ses amis le samedi pronounced? Are some letters silent?

Approximate pronunciation (in English-friendly terms):

Paul → like “Pole” (final l pronounced)
joue → roughly “zhoo” (soft j like in “measure”, final -e silent)
au → like “oh”
football → often [futbol] in French, closer to “foot-boll” with a t sound (not like English “foot”
- “ball” exactly)
avec → “a-vek” (final c pronounced like k)
ses → like “say”
amis → “za-mee” (initial a as in “father”, final -s silent, and there is a liaison ses‿amis → “say-za-mee”)
le → “leuh” (very short)
samedi → “sam-dee” (the middle e is very light; the i = ee)

Main silent letters:

final -e in joue
final -s in ses and amis

Main liaison:

ses amis → the s in ses is linked and pronounced like a z: [se‿zami].