Questions & Answers about Она играет на пианино.
Why is the word на (on) used here? In English we just say "plays the piano."
In Russian, when you talk about playing a musical instrument, you must use the verb играть (to play) followed by the preposition на (on) and the instrument. Russians literally say "She plays on the piano."
Since we are using на, shouldn't пианино be in the Prepositional case and change its ending?
It actually is in the Prepositional case here, but its ending doesn't change because пианино is a borrowed foreign word. In Russian, many foreign words ending in -о, -е, -и, or -у (like радио or метро) are indeclinable. This means they keep the exact same spelling in every grammatical case.
Does the verb играть work the same way for playing sports?
No, that is a tricky difference! While you use на (on) for musical instruments, you use в (in) for sports and games. If she were playing tennis, it would be Она играет в теннис (literally "She plays in tennis").
How do I form the word играет from its dictionary form?
The dictionary form (infinitive) is играть (to play). It belongs to the very common first group of Russian verbs. To make the Она (she) form, you drop the -ть ending and replace it with -ет.
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