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Questions & Answers about Мы занимаемся спортом вместе.
Why is 'sport' written as спортом instead of спорт?
The verb заниматься (to do / to be engaged in) always requires the thing you are doing to be in the Instrumental case. For a masculine noun like спорт, we add -ом to the end to make it спортом.
Since this lesson is about the Instrumental case with с (with), why is there no с here?
Great catch! While the Instrumental case is often used with с to mean 'with', certain verbs like заниматься require the Instrumental case directly, without any preposition. You are literally saying 'We occupy ourselves by means of sport'.
What does the -ся at the end of занимаемся mean?
The -ся ending makes the verb reflexive, which usually means the action reflects back on the subject. The base verb занимать means 'to occupy', but adding -ся makes it заниматься, meaning 'to occupy oneself'. Because the subject is мы (we), the conjugated form is занимаемся.
Could I just say 'Мы делаем спорт' using the verb делать (to do)?
No, Russians do not use the verb делать (to do) for sports. You must use заниматься. However, if you are talking about playing a specific game like tennis or football, you would use the verb играть (to play) instead.