How we PLAY

We all love and can play various games, sports and probably instruments. In Russian, we say that grammatically different, depending on what you play.

The verb играть (to play) belongs to the first group of conjugation. Let’s refresh its endings:

Я играю	Мы играем
Ты играешь	Вы играете
Он / она играет	Они играют

The Perfective pair is поиграть (that means to play for a short period of time) and сыграть (that denotes a completed action).

So, there are only two cases this verb is followed. If you play any sport or game, we use the preposition “в” and then Accusative case. For example: Я играю в волейбол. Literally, it looks “I play in volleyball.” What other sports and games could we play:

Играть в баскетбол	To play basketball
Играть в теннис	To play tennis
Играть в настольный теннис	To play table tennis
Играть в гольф	To play golf
Играть в регби	To play rugby
Играть в настольную игру	To play a board game
Играть в рулетку	To play roulette
Играть в карты	To play cards
Играть в онлайн-игры	To play online games
Играть в плейстейшн	To play PlayStation
Играть в футбол	To play football
Играть в хоккей	To play ice hockey

Some useful phrases:

Вчера я поиграла в теннис только 15 минут, потому что начался дождь.	Yesterday I played tennis for only 15 minutes due to the rain.
Они сыграли 5 партий в вист и пошли домой.	They played 5 rounds of whist and went home.
Завтра в этом клубе будут играть в спортивный покер.	Tomorrow people are playing sports poker at that club.

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Another story is when you play a musical instrument. Then, играть is followed by the preposition “на” and Prepositional case: Я играю на баяне, literally “I play on accordion.” What else we “play on”:

Играть на гитаре	To play guitar
Играть на фортепиано	To play piano
Играть на виолончели	To play cello
Играть на трубе	To play trumpet
Играть на скрипке	To play violin
Играть на контрабасе	To play contrabass
Играть на барабанах	To play drums
Играть на саксофоне	To play saxophone
Играть на волынке	To play bagpipe
Играть на микшерном пульте	To play mixing console

Bonus: Играть на нервах (to irritate someone/to test some nerves).

More widespread sentences:

Я научилась играть на гитаре в возрасте семи лет.	I learnt to play the guitar at 7 years old.
Давай сыграем на скрипке эту мелодию.	Let’s play the violin this melody.
Этот уличный музыкант играет на разных инструментах.	That street musician plays different instruments.

Caution: in Russian we don’t say to play sports, instead we have “заниматься спортом” (to be engaged with sport).

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Also, read about Modal word “NEED” in Russian.

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