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