Le jeu: the ten phrases you'll use every day

Playtime in French

Audio for this is coming. The phrases work now.

On joue ? Shall we play? The invitation.

On construit une tour. We're building a tower. Narrate what their hands are doing.

Un cube, deux cubes, trois cubes. One block, two blocks, three blocks. Counting anything they stack.

Oh non, tout est tombé ! Oh no, it all fell down! Drama carries meaning.

Encore ? Again? One word. They will learn this one first.

C'est à toi. Your turn. Turn-taking language.

C'est à moi. My turn. The pair.

Où est le ballon ? Where's the ball? Answerable by pointing or fetching.

Bien joué ! Well done! Praise in French lands the same.

On range ensemble. Let's tidy up together. The closing action.

Print the le jeu card Keep it in the toy box or on the playroom shelf, so the script is there on the floor where you play

Playtime French is narration. You follow their hands and name what they touch. There's no lesson, no sitting down, the play they were already doing, with a soundtrack.

Why le jeu works

Play is where children do their best language work, low stakes, high repetition, full attention.

Narrating their actions requires almost no French from you: nouns, numbers, and encore.

Turn-taking phrases get used dozens of times in a single game.

When they answer in English

"again again"

Encore ? D'accord, encore une fois !

"it's broken"

C'est cassé ? On répare ensemble.

Don't correct. Don't ask them to repeat. Just say the thing back in French and carry on. That's a recast, and it's the single most effective move in parent-led bilingualism. More on La Reprise.

By age

18 months – 3 years

Label everything. Name the object in their hand, then wait.

3 – 5 years

Pretend play, the shop, the doctor, the kitchen. Take the customer role and let them run it.

The full le jeu module is coming. Start with Le Dodo, complete now, with audio on every line.

See Le Dodo