Games and sports

With or without the definite article?

French normally uses the definite article with names of games and sports :

football

= le football

bridge

= le bridge

chess

= les échecs mpl

marbles

= les billes fpl

cops and robbers

= les gendarmes et les voleurs

to play football

= jouer au football

to play bridge

= jouer au bridge

to play chess

= jouer aux échecs

to play marbles or at marbles

= jouer aux billes

to play cops and robbers or at cops and robbers

= jouer aux gendarmes et aux voleurs

to like football

= aimer le football

to like chess

= aimer les échecs

But most compound nouns (e.g. saute-mouton, colin-maillard, pigeon vole) work like this :

hide-and-seek

= cache-cache m

to play at hide-and-seek

= jouer à cache-cache

to like hide-and-seek

= aimer jouer à cache-cache

Names of other ‘official’ games and sports follow the same pattern as bridge in the following phrases :

to play bridge with X against Y

= jouer au bridge avec X contre Y

to beat sb at bridge

= battre qn au bridge

to win at bridge

= gagner au bridge

to lose at bridge

= perdre au bridge

she’s good at bridge

= elle joue bien au bridge

a bridge club

= un club de bridge

Players and events

a bridge player

= un joueur de bridge

but

I’m not a bridge player

= je ne joue pas au bridge

he’s a good bridge player

= il joue bien au bridge

a game of bridge

= une partie de bridge

a bridge champion

= un champion de bridge

the French bridge champion

= le champion de France de bridge

a bridge championship

= un championnat de bridge

to win the French championship

= gagner le championnat de France

the rules of bridge

= les règles du bridge

Playing cards

The names of the four suits work like club here :

clubs

= les trèfles mpl

to play a club

= jouer un trèfle

a high/low club

= un gros/petit trèfle

the eight of clubs

= le huit de trèfle

the ace of clubs

= l’as de trèfle

I’ve no clubs left

= je n’ai plus de trèfle

have you any clubs?

= as-tu du trèfle?

clubs are trumps

= l’atout est trèfle

to call two clubs

= demander deux trèfles

Other games’ vocabulary can be found in the dictionary at match, game, set, trick etc.

Big English-French dictionary. 2003.