jouiez

Jouiez is a form of the French verb jouer, meaning to play. It is not a separate lexical item but a grammatical inflection used by the verb in two related contexts: the present subjunctive (subjonctif présent) and the imperfect indicative (imparfait) for the second person plural pronoun vous. In written and spoken French, the same spelling—jouiez—can appear in either mood and tense, with meaning determined by surrounding words.

In the present subjunctive, jouiez corresponds to the clause that expresses necessity, desire, doubt, emotion, or possibility after certain expressions and verbs. For example: Il faut que vous jouiez selon les règles (It is necessary that you play according to the rules); Je doute que vous jouiez mal intended as a hypothetical sentiment. This form is common in formal or careful speech and in written French.

In the imperfect indicative, jouiez can appear as a past-tense description: Quand vous jouiez dans la cour, vous étiez souriants. Here, it denotes a habitual or ongoing past action involving the vous subject.

Phonology: jouiez is pronounced roughly as /ʒwa.je/.

Etymology: the form derives from jouer, following the regular conjugation pattern for -er verbs in both the present subjunctive and the imperfect indicative.

Usage note: because the present subjunctive is often minimized in informal speech, the context is essential to interpretjouiez unambiguously. In formal writing, the distinction between present subjunctive and imperfect indicative remains clear through syntactic cues.