Breakdown of Le dimanche, nous faisons de la natation à la piscine.
Questions & Answers about Le dimanche, nous faisons de la natation à la piscine.
In French, le + day of the week is the usual way to talk about a regular, repeated activity:
- Le dimanche, nous faisons de la natation. = On Sundays, we go swimming. (every Sunday, as a habit)
- Dimanche, nous ferons de la natation. = On Sunday, we will go swimming. (a specific Sunday)
So le dimanche here means the action is habitual, not just one particular Sunday.
Yes, you can say both:
- Le dimanche, nous faisons de la natation…
- Tous les dimanches, nous faisons de la natation…
They both express a regular habit. Tous les dimanches (every Sunday) is a bit more explicit and slightly stronger, but in everyday speech the difference is small. Le dimanche is often enough to mean “on Sundays (in general).”
French has two common ways to talk about swimming:
nager = to swim (the physical action)
- Nous nageons. = We are swimming / we swim.
faire de la natation = to do/go swimming as a sport or regular activity
- Nous faisons de la natation. = We do swimming / We go swimming.
In your sentence, faire de la natation emphasizes “swimming” as a sport or regular leisure activity, not just the physical act of being in the water. That’s why faisons (from faire) is used, not nageons (from nager).
Faisons is the nous (we) form of the irregular verb faire in the present tense:
- je fais
- tu fais
- il / elle / on fait
- nous faisons
- vous faites
- ils / elles font
Pronunciation:
- faisons is pronounced approximately [fɛ-zɔ̃]
- The ai sounds like eh.
- The s is pronounced [z] between vowels.
- The final -ons is nasalized [ɔ̃]; the final s is silent.
So you don’t pronounce the letters one by one; it’s more like feh-zon (with a nasal “on”).
After faire with many sports and leisure activities, French normally uses the partitive article (du / de la / de l’ / des):
- faire du sport
- faire de la danse
- faire du vélo
- faire de la natation
Here:
- natation is feminine → de la natation.
The partitive article (de la) is like saying “some” or “(a bit of)”: faire de la natation ≈ “to do (some) swimming.” You usually do not drop the article in this structure, so faire natation is incorrect in standard French.
No, not in this meaning.
- Nous faisons de la natation. = We go swimming / we do swimming (as an activity).
- Nous faisons la natation. sounds wrong or unnatural in this context.
With sports and hobbies after faire, French uses the partitive (du / de la / de l’ / des), not the definite article (le / la / les). So you should stick with de la natation here.
Because natation is feminine:
- masculine singular → du (de + le): du tennis
- feminine singular → de la: de la natation
- singular starting with a vowel → de l’: de l’athlétisme
- plural → des: des échecs
Since la natation is feminine, the correct partitive is de la natation, not du natation.
You can, but the nuance changes slightly:
- Le dimanche, nous faisons de la natation à la piscine.
- Emphasizes swimming as a sport/regular activity.
- Le dimanche, nous nageons à la piscine.
- Focuses more on the physical act of swimming.
Both are grammatically correct and understandable. Faire de la natation sounds a bit more like “we practice swimming” or “we do swimming (as an activity).”
Piscine is a feminine noun:
- la piscine = the swimming pool
The preposition à combines with articles like this:
- à + le → au (masc. singular)
- à + la → à la (fem. singular)
- à + l’ → à l’ (before vowel/h mute h)
- à + les → aux (plural)
Since piscine is feminine, you must say:
- à la piscine = at/to the swimming pool
You cannot drop the article in standard French, so à piscine is not correct, and au piscine would use the masculine form au with a feminine noun, which is also wrong.
- à la piscine = at the swimming pool (the place in general)
- could mean in the water, on the deck, in the building, etc.
- dans la piscine = in the swimming pool (physically in the water)
In your sentence, à la piscine is natural because you’re talking about the activity happening at that location, not insisting on the fact that you’re literally in the water.
The comma is optional but very common and recommended:
- Le dimanche, nous faisons de la natation à la piscine.
- Le dimanche nous faisons de la natation à la piscine. (also accepted)
Le dimanche is an adverbial phrase of time (On Sundays). In French, these are often set off with a comma when they appear at the start of the sentence, mainly for clarity and rhythm.
Yes. Both word orders are correct:
- Le dimanche, nous faisons de la natation à la piscine.
- Nous faisons de la natation à la piscine le dimanche.
Placing le dimanche at the beginning emphasizes when you do the activity; putting it at the end is slightly more neutral. It’s mostly a question of style and rhythm.
You normally must keep the subject pronoun nous in standard French:
- Le dimanche, nous faisons de la natation à la piscine. ✔
If you say:
- Le dimanche, faisons de la natation à la piscine.
this sounds like an imperative (a suggestion or command: On Sundays, let’s go swimming at the pool), addressed to other people. It is no longer a simple statement about a habit. So for a normal descriptive sentence, you need nous.
French present tense covers both:
- an action happening now
- a habitual or repeated action
In this sentence, because of Le dimanche, the present clearly has a habitual meaning:
- Le dimanche, nous faisons de la natation…
= On Sundays, we (usually) go swimming at the pool.
No extra words (like “do” or “usually”) are needed in French; the context gives the habitual meaning.