Summer has been here for a few weeks, and that means la fête de la musique and la canicule are here as well, but there is another summer tradition happening this week that can help you practice French: Summer Games Done Quick!

Summer Games Done Quick or SGDQ is un événement de charité (a charity event) focused on speedrunning. Le speedrunning is playing un jeu vidéo (a video game) with the goal of beating it as fast as possible. There are speedrunning communities around the world including in la francophonie, and they all come together for this événement de speedrunning.

L’œuvre de charité (the charity) that SGDQ benefits is MSF (Médecins Sans Frontière, Doctors Without Borders) and last year they raised over 1,2 million de dollars (1.2 million dollars) over the course of l’événement!

While the événement takes place aux États-Unis (in the United States), SGDQ is retransmise en direct (streamed, broadcast) in French as well! It’s a great way to watch your favorite jeu vidéo be beat in ways you could never imagine and practice French at the same time.

Regardez la diffusion en français sur Twitch ou sur Gaming Live !

It’s easy to get confused with all the vocabulaire du jeu vidéo (gaming vocabulary). While there are many anglicismes (English loan words), there are also many words that cannot be guessed.

Voici un vocabulaire du jeu vidéo :

“controllers” by yoppy on Flickr. Licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Le jeu vidéo – Video Game
Le jeu – Game
La cartouche – Cartridge
La console – Console
La manette – Controller
Le PC – PC (Personal Computer)
L’ordinateur – Computer
L’ordi – Computer
Le câble – Cord
Le fil – Cord
La souris – Mouse
Le clavier – Keyboard
La télé – TV
L’écran – Screen, Monitor
Le moniteur – Monitor
Le jouer – Gamer
Le bug, le bogue – Glitch, bug
Boguer – To glitch, to bug, to freeze (computer terms)
Le logiciel – Software
Le matériel informatique – Hardware
Le hardware – Hardware

If you want to say you’re playing a specific console, you always use La before the name of the console:

J’aime jouer à la PlayStation.
I like playing PlayStation.

Check the SGDQ schedule and try to catch your favorite game en VF! If you’ve missed your favorite jeu vidéo, ne vous inquiétez pas (don’t worry) there’s another GDQ in half a year!