PLAY Basic Verbs Learn English Grammar

hi everybody welcome back to know your

verbs my name is Alicia and in this

lesson we’re going to talk about the

verb play let’s begin

let’s begin with the basic definition of

this verb it’s to engage in a game sport

or activity examples we play soccer

every week let’s play a board game now

let’s look at the conjugations for this

verb present play plays past played past

participle played progressive playing

okay so now let’s talk about some

additional meanings for this verb the

first additional meaning to spend time

doing something fun this use of the verb

is typically used among children we use

this for children and to talk about the

activities of children examples we used

to play with the kids in our

neighborhood do you like playing with

dolls in these example sentences we’re

talking about the activities that kids

do things that kids do like playing with

their friends playing with dolls playing

with trucks playing with cars so when we

use playing with it’s like there’s some

kind of enjoyable activity going on and

it has a very youthful sound to it it

sounds like something kids do a mistake

that I hear adult learners make

sometimes is they say I played with my

friends last weekend as adults we don’t

use the verb play we’ll use it to refer

to a sport or to a game but we do not

use it to talk about spending time with

friends as adults especially American

English speakers we can say for example

I hung out with my friends last weekend

or I got together with my friends last

weekend that’s fine we do not use the

verb play as adults for kids great I

played with my friends when I was little

I played with dolls when I was little

okay let’s go on to the second

additional meaning the second additional

meaning is to perform as a character

this can mean theater it can mean movies

it can mean any kind of performance

examples Keanu Reeves played neo in the

matrix series I want to play a dramatic

role someday so here in my first example

sentence I’ve got Keanu Reeves as my

example Keanu Reeves played neo in the

matrix series so he performed in the

role of neo he performed in the role of

is shortened to played there in the

second example sentence I want to play a

dramatic role someday play means perform

in I want to perform in a dramatic role

someday so this means perform to play

okay let’s move on to the third

additional meaning for the sperm it is

to pretend to be a certain way

to pretend to exhibit a certain behavior

a key here is pretending pretending

examples he’s playing dumb he knows the

answer I taught my dog to play dead okay

so here we see play in the first example

sentence he’s playing dumb

that means he’s pretending not to know

that’s what this sentence means he’s

playing dumb playing dumb is a quite a

common phrase like don’t play dumb means

don’t pretend not to know something in

the second example sentence I taught my

dog to play dead

means I taught my dog to pretend to be

dead or I taught my dog to act like he

or she is dead so to play means to

pretend something

so the fourth additional meaning here is

to perform music to perform music

examples the DJ played a lot of great

music last night have you ever played

this on piano so this is quite simple it

just means to perform music like you you

cause music to be heard by other people

so a DJ can play music through a sound

system of course we can play instruments

like playing the piano or playing the

heart playing the flute

so we can use play to mean performing

music or like sharing music some way

alright let’s talk about some variations

for this verb now there are a lot of

variations for the verb play these are

just a few that I’m going to introduce

of course if you want to know more I

highly recommend checking a dictionary

ok let’s take a look at the first one

for this lesson to play something by ear

to play something by ear this means to

do something without a plan it means to

make decisions in the moment so examples

we have no plans for the day we’re just

gonna play it by ear I don’t want to

plan my travels too much I prefer to

play things by ear so both of these use

the expression play it by ear play

things by ear meaning I don’t want to

make plans like I just want to see how

things go if things are feeling one way

I’ll do that if things are feeling

another way I’ll make a different

decision so why do we say playing by ear

imagine then if you play an instrument

maybe this is useful for you but imagine

you’re trying to play the piano and

you’re trying to play a melody you’re

trying to find a melody you don’t know

it but you listen to each note as you

play and gradually you can find the

melody you’re looking for so we call

that playing physically playing

performing a song by ear so using your

ear to listen to the melody and find the

correct melody that way we use the same

idea for our activities so playing an

activity by ear according to our

feelings we make decisions for the next

step to play it by ear let’s go on to

the second variation for this verb it is

to play with fire to play with fire

means to do something dangerous or to do

something that’s a bit risky for example

examples you want to confront the CEO

about her mistakes don’t play with fire

he’s trying to date three people at the

same time he’s playing with fire ok so

both of these share may be a risky or

possibly dangerous situation in the

first example sentence confronting a CEO

about her mistakes that sounds like it

could be dangerous for someone

potentially if they don’t want to lose

their job at the company so the speaker

men’s don’t play with fire in other

words don’t do something risky don’t do

something dangerous suggesting that the

previous point confronting the CEO is a

risky or dangerous behavior don’t do

that in the second example sentence we

see it in the progressive tense he’s

playing with fire by dating three women

at the same time so that could be risky

it could be dangerous he could cause

fights he could cause problems we don’t

know but we’re saying he’s playing with

fire he’s doing something that is risky

or dangerous okay let’s move on to the

third variation of this bird the third

variation is to play up to play up this

is kind of a slang expression this is an

expression that means to make something

seem better than it actually is

so maybe the true level is here but when

we play something up we exaggerate it we

improve it but only with our words it’s

not truly here it’s still here we make

it sound better examples my parents

always play up my achievements be

careful not to play yourself up on your

resume it might cause problems in the

future so here we see play up being used

to describe someone’s life for someone’s

activities being exaggerated so in the

first example my parents always play up

my achievements it means my parents make

my achievements sound better than they

actually are so maybe I had some nice

achievement great but perhaps my parents

make it sound like the achievement is

even better even bigger than it truly is

like as parents do fine but to play up

something means it’s not truly at that

level in the second example sentence be

careful not to play yourself up on your

resume it means don’t make yourself

sound better than you actually are on

your resume because it might cause

problems in the future so to play up

means to improve the apparent quality or

the apparent value of something but it’s

not true okay so those are a few new

ways to use the word play I hope of

course as I said there are lots and lots

of ways to use this word so I highly

recommend checking a dictionary to see

all of them of course if you have any

questions or comments or if you want to

prep

using this verb please feel free to do

so in the comment section of this video

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much for watching this episode of know

your verbs and we’ll see you again next

time hey Mike