Sport and games (футбол, теннис)

Playing a Game: играть в

Russian marks the difference between playing a GAME and playing an INSTRUMENT with a preposition, and getting it wrong is one of the commonest mistakes learners make.

For a sport or a game, use играть в + accusative:

Мы играем *в футбол. — We play football. Я играю в теннис.* — I play tennis.

Because these nouns are inanimate and masculine, the accusative looks exactly like the dictionary form — so in practice you simply add в.

Playing an Instrument: играть на

For a musical instrument, use играть на + prepositional:

Я играю *на гитаре. — I play the guitar. Она играет на пианино.* — She plays the piano.

Here the noun DOES change, taking the -е ending you know from places. Пианино is borrowed and indeclinable, so it never changes at all.

The Games

Three of these four are borrowed straight from English and are easy to recognise; мяч — the ball — is the native Russian word in the set.