Le sport

One preposition carries the whole distinction, and there is no way to avoid choosing.

• Jouer au foot, jouer au tennis, jouer aux cartes
• Jouer du piano, jouer de la guitare, jouer du violon

Games and sports take à. Instruments take de. Get it the wrong way round and you have said something that is not quite meaningless, just visibly wrong.

Faire is often more natural

For physical activity generally, French reaches for faire more readily than jouer:

• Faire du sport, faire du vélo, faire de la natation

Jouer needs a game: something with rules and, usually, an opponent. Running, cycling and swimming are not games, so they take faire. Even the games take faire when you mean the activity in general rather than a particular match: je fais du tennis and je joue au tennis are both everyday French.

Winning, losing and earning

Gagner is to win and also to earn, which you met with money. Perdre is to lose in both the competitive and the mislaid sense.

Un match is a match, the organised kind. Une partie is one game played from start to finish, une partie de cartes, une partie de tennis between friends, and also a part of something. Un jeu is a game in the abstract, the concept rather than the occasion, and in tennis it is also one game within a set.

Ball is three words

Une balle is a small ball, the kind used in tennis. Un ballon is a large one, for football or rugby, and also a balloon. Une boule is a sphere generally, and what you throw at pétanque.

Choosing the wrong one is harmless and immediately understood, but the three-way split is unusual enough to be worth noticing.

Courir and course

Courir is to run. Une course is a race, and in the plural les courses is the shopping. Faire les courses therefore means to do the shopping rather than to go running, which is a trap set specifically for learners who have just met the verb.