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 this verb it is
to pretend to be a certain way or 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 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
all right 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 okay 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
going to 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 activity 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
okay so both of these share maybe 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
recommends 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 verb
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 or 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 practice using this verb
please feel free to do so in the comment
section of this video of course also if
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thanks very much for watching this
episode of know your verbs and we'll see
you again next time bye-bye