3.4 Language and Culture – Изве́стные ру́сские музыка́нты и спортсме́ны

Play Time

Watch this video below.
Посмотри́те ви́део о музыка́нтах и спортсме́нах.

For the moment, I just want you to see and listen to the following about Russian musicians and athletes.

[VIDEO]

Игра́ть

The verb игра́ть ‘to play’ in Russian is used the same way it is in English. Think about what that might be. We usually play sports or games and instruments. Russians also play these things, BUT the verb игратъ does something different for each of the meanings, and you must learn it. Of course!

Examine the following examples and see if you can spot the differences. Hint – you’re looking for grammatical (i.e., Case and/or prepositional) differences.

	И́ра игра́ет в волейбо́л. Ira plays* volleyball.
	Он игра́ет в хокке́й. He plays hockey.
	Анто́н и Ди́ма игра́ют в футбо́л. Anton and Dima are playing* soccer.
	Па́па игра́ет в лотере́ю. Dad plays the lottery.
	Ани́та и Елизаве́та игра́ют в ша́хматы. Anita and Elizaveta are playing chess.

	Макси́м игра́ет на скри́пке. Maksim plays the violin.
	Де́вушка игра́ет на саксофо́не. The girl plays the saxophone.
	Сын игра́ет на роя́ле. (My) son plays the piano.
	Э́то Ксе́ния. Она́ музыка́нт. Она́ игра́ет на флейте. This is Ksenia. She’s a musician. She plays the flute.
	Ке́вин хорошо́ игра́ет на бараба́нах. Kevin plays the drums well.

*Remember that Russian verbs in the present tense can be translated at least two ways in English. Here, играет can mean either ‘is playing‘ or ‘plays‘. The different will depend on context if given.

What is the difference between the top and bottom examples?

Right off, you probably noticed that the ones involving sports or games use играть + the preposition ‘в’ + Accusative Case (maybe you noticed that), and the ones involving instruments use играть + the preposition ‘на’ + Prepositional Case.

To summarize:

It’s a pretty easy distinction to make.

For most of these examples it is difficult to tell whether the sports/games are in Accusative or Nominative case since the endings for these words are the same in both cases. It is only for the last example above that the CASE becomes clear.