"De spiller ball."

Translation: They're playing ball.

[londoncallling]

Does Norwegian have the same idiom as English where 'playing ball' means being cooperative?

[Cithera]

Playing ball is pretty much exclusive to American English

[CookieCloud13]

Actually in Germany we have this idiom too. "Jemandem den Ball zuspielen" - "passing someone the ball". Also in the sense of being cooperative.

[jar30pma23]

Ball: just a generic reference to a game using a ball??

[Luke_5.1991]

Yes.

[kokiri85]

Quick purusal of my dictionary says "spille" is for sports or theater, and "leke" is for children. But I assume children can still "spille ball," right? Leke is like, for play without organized rules?

[RickPT395]

I'm not any expert, but your explanation makes sense for me.

[ukeglider]

I read somewhere (maybe in a comment) that 'å spille' needs an object to play with, and 'å leke' doesn't need it.

So for instruments and most sports (those that don't have a proper verb for itself, like "swimming") you would use spiller, and for children playing along and stuff like that, you would use leker.

Correct me if i'm wrong please

[madafakasupreme]

Is "å spille" used only when you talk about sports?

[NikaKobetic]

And also video games and musical instruments.