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.
See also:
A/an and the
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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