Learn Hardcore French: Le dimanche, ils font une longue balade près de la rivière. - On Sundays, they go for a long walk near the river.

Le dimanche, ils font… = On Sundays, they go for… (habitual action)
Dimanche, ils font… = This Sunday, they will / are going to… (a specific Sunday)

So le dimanche tells you it’s something they do regularly, not just once.

Why do we use ils here and not eux?

Ils is a subject pronoun (they), used before a verb: Ils font… (= They do / They make).
Eux is a stress pronoun, used for emphasis or after prepositions:

C’est eux. = It’s them.
Avec eux. = With them.

Since ils is the subject of the verb font, you need ils, not eux.

What does font mean here, and which verb is it from?

Font is the third person plural (they) form of the verb faire in the present tense.

Faire = to do / to make, but it’s also used in many fixed expressions.
Here, faire une balade means “to go for a walk / go on a stroll”, so ils font une balade is best understood as “they go for a walk”, not literally “they make a walk”.

Why is it une longue balade and not un longue balade?

Balade is a feminine noun, so it takes the feminine article and adjectives:

Feminine article: une balade
Feminine form of long: longue (masculine: un long film, feminine: une longue balade)

Because balade is feminine, both the article and the adjective must agree in gender and number: une longue balade.

Why is longue placed before balade? I thought French adjectives usually came after the noun.

Most French adjectives come after the noun, but there is a group that usually comes before, often remembered as BANGS (Beauty, Age, Number, Goodness, Size). Long/longue often goes before the noun when it refers to size/length in a more “typical” or subjective way.

So:

une longue balade is the natural, common phrasing.
You could say une balade longue, but it sounds more marked, as if you’re insisting on the length (“a walk that is long, specifically”).

What’s the difference between balade, promenade, and marche?

They all involve walking, but with different nuances:

Une balade
- Casual walk, stroll, or outing.
- Slightly informal and often pleasant or leisurely.
Une promenade
- Also a walk or stroll, often a bit more neutral or slightly formal.
- Faire une promenade = go for a walk.
Une marche
- Walking as physical activity or movement.
- Faire une marche can sound more like purposeful walking or even a hike.
- La marche = walking (as an activity), or “march” in a more serious sense.

In everyday speech, faire une balade and faire une promenade often overlap in meaning.

What does près de mean exactly, and why is it près de la and not something else?

Près de means “near / close to”. It is always followed by de plus a noun:

près de la rivière = near the river (feminine noun → de la)
près du parc = near the park (de + le → du)
près des magasins = near the shops (de + les → des)

So près de la rivière is the correct combination because rivière is feminine and singular.

What’s the difference between près de and proche de?

Both can mean “near / close to”, but their usage is a bit different:

près de is a preposition and is very common in everyday speech:
- Ils habitent près de la rivière. = They live near the river.
proche de can be an adjective used with être, and sometimes sounds more formal or literary:
- La maison est proche de la rivière. = The house is close to the river.

In many contexts, you can use either, but près de is often the more natural choice in casual speech.

Why is it rivière and not fleuve? Aren’t both “rivers”?

Both rivière and fleuve translate as river, but French makes a distinction:

Un fleuve = a river that flows into the sea or the ocean (e.g. la Seine, le Rhône).
Une rivière = a river that flows into another river or lake, not directly into the sea.

In everyday conversation, if the type doesn’t matter, people often say rivière for a generic “river near the house / in the countryside”.

Why is the present tense ils font used instead of something that looks like “usually” or “every Sunday”?

In French, the present tense can express habits or repeated actions, especially when combined with an expression like le dimanche.

Le dimanche, ils font une longue balade.
= On Sundays, they go for a long walk (habitually).

You don’t need to add a word like “usually”; the combination le + day of the week already gives that “every/usually” idea.

Could you also say Ils se promènent instead of Ils font une balade? What’s the difference?

Yes, you could say Le dimanche, ils se promènent près de la rivière.
Both mean roughly “They go for a walk / They take a stroll.”

Nuance:

Ils font une balade – focuses on the outing as an activity (a walk, a little trip).
Ils se promènent – focuses more on the action of walking around itself.

In many contexts, they are interchangeable in meaning.

Is the comma after Le dimanche necessary?

The comma after Le dimanche is normal and helpful, because Le dimanche is an adverbial phrase of time placed at the start of the sentence. It separates the time expression from the main clause:

Le dimanche, ils font une longue balade…

You could technically omit it in very informal writing, but standard written French strongly prefers the comma here.

How do you pronounce the tricky parts like font, balade, près, and rivière?

Approximate English-like guides (not perfect, but helpful):

font → sounds like “fon” (through the nose), with no pronounced -t.
balade → “ba-lahd”, final -e is very light, almost like ba-lad(uh).
près → similar to “preh”, short e sound, not “pray”.
rivière → “ree-vyair”, with a soft r at the start and end, and -viè- like vyair.

In the whole sentence, liaison is optional between longue and balade, so you may or may not hear a little linking sound there.