Using “à des” instead of “aux”

Question

While I was trying to figure out how to say 'such as' in French, Google translate had me a little confused.

As a test phrase, I used the following:

I like to play video games such as League of Legends and Counter Strike.

Google translate spat out the following:

J'aime jouer à des jeux vidéo tels que League of Legends et Counter Strike.

I was a bit confused. I was expecting aux instead of à des. Also, vidéo lacks an s at the end even though the particle 'des' is in front of it. I tried again but without the second part of the sentence. It came out as:

J'aime jouer aux jeux vidéos.

Is this a quirk in Google translate, or does the use of 'tels que' change something?

Answer 1

This is because aux is a contraction of à les, and not à des.

J’ai payé un café à des ados qui semblaient épuisés et désemparés.
J’ai payé un café aux ados là-bas. Ils semblaient épuisés et désemparés.

In the first case, we may suppose the teenagers have not been seen by all of those whom the message is intended to: they are teenagers among the population of teenagers. In the second case, we can still show them, they are those teenagers, still moving as a group we can see.

Concerning video games, the following two sentences are only slightly different:

• J’aime jouer aux jeux vidéo tels que Tadadi et Tadada. → Insisting that you like quite a few of the games similar to Tadadi and Tadada.
• J’aime jouer à des jeux vidéo tels que Mouse Trap et Donkey Kong. → Stating that you take pleasure in a few video games in the same vein as Mouse Trap and Donkey Kong.

But perceptions may vary, and a few for you might ultimately represent a lot for someone else...

Answer 2

Indeed, the use of "tels que" as an influence and Google traduction is correct in this case. In this sentence, "aux" 'd have been put if you like playing video games "in general". On the other hand, you will often put " à des "when you precise which games you like (with "tels que"). Note that using "aux" in this case is not so shocking even for native speakers