Today's Word of the Day:doobutsuen

[imburns20126786]

あかちゃんぞうがどうぶつえんのすなであそんでいる。

My question is this: does the verb asobu always take the particle de to mean "play with" something?

Thanks in advance!

[thegooseking]

Yes, you would normally use 'de' to mark a thing you're playing with. You would also use it to mark a place you're playing. However you would use 'to' to mark a person you're playing with (e.g. "tomodachi to asobu"), or 'wo' to mark the name of a game you're playing (e.g. "tenisu wo asobu").

小狼

[mewes6190]

(e.g. "tomodachi to asobu"), or 'wo' to mark the name of a game you're playing (e.g. "tenisu wo asobu").

小狼

While I see you're Point and don't want to argue about it, one particular point striked me as odd:
Would you use asobu with tenisu? I always thought it's "tenisu wo suru"!? Or can you use both?

[thegooseking]

That's a good question! I think you can use 'suru', 'asobu' or combine the two to make 'shite asobu', but I'm not entirely sure what the difference between these things is.

[mmmason8967]

I'm with くろくまさん on this one: I don't think asobu works with sports. I think it has to be suru. I have to admit that I'm not basing this on any special knowledge; I just see asobu as meaning "play" in the sense of amusing yourself.

But even in English, "play" only works with certain sports: it doesn't work with boxing, clay-pigeon shooting, formula one racing, skiing or swimming, for example. And I expect that other meanings of "play" are different in Japanese. For example, if you can play (i.e. operate) a guitar then you might be able to play (i.e. perform) "Stairway to Heaven": I don't know how you'd express these meanings, though.

マイケル

[thegooseking]

I have only seen one example of 'asobu' used in this way, and that is:-

私は楽しくテニスを遊んだ。
Watashi wa tanoshiku tenisu wo asonda.
I had fun playing tennis.

Now, since I've only seen one example of this, it's not impossible that it's simply wrong. Another possibility is that there is an obvious connotation of 'amusement' with the adverb 楽しく. I don't know.

遊ぶ can also mean "to waste time" or "to idle", and I'm a bit more confident that in that situation you would use を to mark the time that is wasted (e.g. 一日を遊ぶ - "to waste a whole day", or 青春を遊ぶ - "to misspend one's youth").

小狼

[Tracel]

「遊ぶ」という言葉で遊びましょうか。

Particles, particles. I think everyone is right at least to a certain extent. I looked up the word, and my handy dandy dictionary has quite a few examples of 遊ぶ　in use.

１．子供は積み木で遊ぶ。
こどもはつみきであそぶ。
Children play with blocks.

２．子犬と遊ぶのはとても楽しい。
こいぬとあそぶのはとてもたのしい。
It is great fun to play with puppies.

３．絶対に道路で遊ぶな。
ぜったいにどうろであそぶな。
Never play on the road.

４．彼は古い空き缶でフットボールをして遊んでいました。
かれはふるいあきかんでふっとぼーるをしてあそんでいました。
He was playing football with an old tin...

５．私の家に遊びに来てください。
Please come over to my house for a visit.



To play an instrument is a completely different set of words though:

For stringed and keyboard　‐弾く
１．ギターを弾く。
ぎたーをひく。
Play the guitar.
２．ピアノを弾く。
ぴあのをひく。
Play the piano.

For wind instruments -吹く
１．サックスを吹く。
Saxをふく。
Play the Saxophone.

For percussion instruments -たたく
１．ドラムをたたく。
Play the drum.

Hope this helps,
トラ

[community.japanese]

imburns20126786-san, 小狼さん、くろくまさん、マイケルさん、トラさん、
kon'nichiwa!

Good point about 遊ぶVS "play"
Sometimes, we can use both 遊ぶ(asobu) and する(suru) for the same thing (or sports).
The difference is the meanings: "play or have fun with" or just "do".
1. テニスをする(tenisu o suru) = "to do the tennis" (usually in English, it should be "play" tennis, but...)
2. テニスで遊ぶ(tenisu de aosbu) = "to play with doing tennis"

Sentence 1 describes "to play tennis" and the 2 actually describes "to have fun (to play) with tennis".
Hope it makes sense

Natsuko (奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[thegooseking]

Thanks for that explanation, 奈津子先生.

If I'm right, then, the example I posted earlier:-
私は楽しくテニスを遊んだ

The を in here doesn't indicate that tennis is the direct object of 遊ぶ (which is intransitive, so can't have a direct object), but rather that tennis is the cause of the emotion of having fun. Is that right?

小狼

[community.japanese]

子狼さん、
that's very right!

Natsuko (奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com