Core sport and exercise vocabulary
The essential French words for sports and exercise, with pronunciation and gender.
Let's start with the words themselves. Notice the gender (le = masculine, la = feminine) — you need it to pick the right contraction later (au vs du). A few sports keep an English-looking spelling but are pronounced the French way.
| French | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| le sport | luh spor | sport |
| le football / le foot | luh foot-BOL / luh foot | football |
| le tennis | luh tay-NEES | tennis |
| le basket(-ball) | luh bas-KET | basketball |
| le rugby | luh ruug-BEE | rugby |
| la natation | la na-ta-SYON | swimming |
| le vélo / le cyclisme | luh vay-LO / luh see-KLEESM | cycling |
| la danse | la dahnss | dance/dancing |
| la course (à pied) | la koorss (a pyay) | running |
| la gymnastique / la gym | la zheem-na-STEEK | gymnastics/gym |
| le ski | luh skee | skiing |
| l'équitation (f) | lay-kee-ta-SYON | horse riding |
Useful related nouns and places.
| French | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| le stade | luh stad | stadium |
| la piscine | la pee-SEEN | swimming pool |
| le gymnase | luh zheem-NAZ | gym/sports hall |
| le terrain | luh tay-RAN | pitch/court |
| une équipe | ün ay-KEEP | a team |
| un match | uhn match | a match |
| l'entraînement (m) | lon-trenn-MON | training |
Worked mini-example. If you want to say "I love swimming", you need la natation (swimming). Because it is an activity, you'll use faire de (see the next section): J'adore faire de la natation (I love swimming). One word at a time — you already have the building blocks.
- Learn each sport with its article (le/la) — you need the gender for au/du later.
- le football, le tennis, le vélo are masculine; la natation, la danse, la gym are feminine.
- Place words matter too: la piscine (pool), le stade (stadium), le gymnase (gym).
- le foot and le basket are common short forms of le football and le basket-ball.