Play or game?

Play

Play as a noun means ‘a piece of dramatic writing for the theatre or radio or television’:

The students performed a play by Shakespeare and sang some folk songs.

Radio plays are always much better than TV plays – you can use your imagination more.

Warning:

We use play as a verb when we talk about individual roles in a dramatic production, but we say that someone acts in a play (noun):

Who played Hamlet?

Not: Who acted Hamlet?

McBride acted in over 40 plays.

Not: McBride played over 40 plays.

We use play as a verb to talk about doing sports, music and other leisure activities. We usually don’t use an article (a/an, the) when we talk about sport or leisure activities. We usually use an article when we talk about musical instruments:

I played rugby as a child; we never played soccer.

Can you play the piano?

I’ve never played poker. Have you?

We usually don’t use an article (a/an, the) when we talk about sport or leisure activities. We usually use an article when we talk about musical instruments.

Game

Game is a noun. We use it to talk about sports or other entertaining activities:

Would you like a game of tennis? (or Would you liketo playtennis?)

Not: Would you like a play of tennis?

The children invent some fantastic games to occupy themselves.

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