Q&A for How to Keep Score in Tennis in French

The origins of the scoring in tennis are said to come from France. The French used a face of a clock to help keep score— hence 15, 30, 40 and game. 45 was dropped and replaced with 40, as it was deemed too much of a mouthful to get out during a game.

"Jeu décisif" is French for tie break.

You can say, "un jeu tous."

'Love' is the term for '0' in tennis. People are unsure of its origin but it just means 0. The points system is as follows: Love(0), 15, 30, 40. So 15 = 1 rally won, 30 = 2 rallys won and 40 = 3 rallys won. (Whoever serves their score is called first. So Thirty love means the server has won 2 rallys (30) and the receiver is on 0 (Love).

Love denotes the score when one player has scored and another has not, where the number represents the score of one player and love represents the score of 0 within the round. So 40-Love would describe a situation in which one player has scored three times in one round and the opposing player has not scored at all. Essentially "love" means 0 when calling out scores in tennis.

"Away."

"Two games all" in French would be "deux jeux tous."

In French, the word for let is "laisser," pronounced "li-se."

"Jeu de service d'amour" is "love service game" in French.

The linesman says Out with a loud voice that carries across the pitch to affirm that the ball has left play and raises a little flag above their head in triumph to verify that the decision is correct.

Trente à (short for "trente à trente", meaning "thirty to thirty"). You could also say "trente partout" though that is less common.

Quinze trente.