"Я не играю на скрипке."
Translation:I don't play the violin.
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2335
Interesting, but I don't believe so. Certainly where I'm from, they're exactly the same. A "fiddle" is usually used for folk music whereas a "violin" is used for more classical music.
Au contrair.
Firstly, "to play the violin" is a standard British way of saying it, whereas you frequently hear "to play violin" in the US. You can check the opinions of some native speakers e.g. here: http://forum.wordreference.com/threads/play-the-piano-play-piano.1564241/
Secondly, there is nothing grammatically wrong with "to play a violin". This expression would merely refer to some violin - e.g., an actual thing rather than the type of a musical instrument. For obvious reasons such usage is much less common.
If you want to have some fun with it, check the title of this book (seemingly written by a native speaker): http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/learn-to-play-a-piano-robert-masterson/1112100183
It does not. The standard variations are:
- to play violin (US)
- to play the violin (GB)
In the latter case the violin is treated the same way the animal species are treated in English: the lion, the tiger etc. - it's the name of the species, not an individual animal:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger
1037
It is imperfective. In my understanding, it can mean both "I am not playing (right now)" and "I don't play the violin (in general)".
There's also уметь, which means "to be able to".
Я не умею играть на скрипке. I am not able to play the violin.