3.4 Настоя́щая речь – Play Time!

Спорт и Му́зыка

Игра́ть – to play

Very often hobbies include sports and music, so let’s learn to talk about those in Russian!

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. Russian speakers often also play these things. However, the verb игра́тъ 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.

Спорт

	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.

Му́зыка

	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 a few ways in English. Here, игра́ет can mean 1) plays, 2) is playing, 3) has played, or 4) has been playing.

Regarding the Russian examples above, you probably noticed that the ones involving sports or games use игра́ть + the preposition ‘в’ followed by a noun in the Accusative Case (maybe you noticed that?), and the ones involving instruments use играть + the preposition ‘на’ followed by a noun in the 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.