28 Comments
- 25
- 66
Does anyone know why the translation is "juegan al fútbol" rather than "juegan fútbol" without "al"? Both Google and SpanishDict tranlations also use "al" for playing football, but the don't use it for playing baseball or basketball; i.e., they translate "They play baseball in the park" as "Juegan béisbol en el parque". Same for basketball. When is "al" appropriate and when is it not???
- 25
- 6
- 587
Hi gvlalonde. Es lo mismo. Usamos las dos formas todo el tiempo. Es mejor "Jugar a (algo)", pero : ellos juegan al futbol (basquet, tenis, rugby, etc) en el parque es lo mismo que decir: ellos juegan futbol en el parque. Regards.
- 25
- 66
Thanks grace780329. Your response answers the question for me. Muchas gracias.
It is simply a rule.
"To play sports" in Spanish is "jugar a los deportes".
You can insert any preferred sport but the pattern remains the same. It is just how "jugar" works.
Now, you can choose to avoid all that by using "practicar".
"Practicar" does not use a connecting "a".
The sentence above could have been:
"Ellos practican fútbol en el parque." and still mean exactly the same thing.
http://www.spanishdict.com/translate/practicar%20un%20deporte
- 25
- 10
- 3
when referring to sports you need to use "el/la" + the sport, but I couldn't help you with the "a" part of it
- 25
- 14
- 11
- 8
The verb "jugar" is followed by the preposition "a". Don't understand why it's not needed with "béisbol" either. I believe it is more correct to say "juegan al béisbol", and it is certainly not wrong to write it that way.
- 25
- 66
Well, both Google and SpanishDict translators do not use the "a" or the "el/la" with béisbol (baseball), but the same translators use "al" with fútbol (soccer).
- 22
- 20
- 16
- 157
Automatic translators are usually pretty rubbish.
"Playing a sport" is usually expressed with "jugar a un deporte". The preposition doesn't have a special meaning and can be left out in some dialects.
- 10
Fútbol is a masculine term, so the direct object pronoun is el fútbol. When putting 'a' in front of 'el', it becomes al. However this doesn't apply for feminine terms. It is just a la.
- 13
- 11
- 9
- 5
- 4
The same annoys me with dates... I'm German but I refuse to use "December eight", I want to use it the same way the rest of the world except for this strange country between Canada and Mexico does it :) British English is the real English! In German courses you also don't learn funny Austrian specific words
- 22
- 20
- 16
- 157
"Der Fußgeher überkreuzt die Straße am Verkehrslicht." :)
There are many "real Englishes", and Duo strives to accept them all as valid answers. The company, Duolingo, is just America-centric, so both the English and the Spanish that are taught and used here focus more on what is spoken in the New World.
- 10
Jugar - to play Practicar - to practice You can use these verbs whenever they apply to the sentence. (Are you practicing the sport or playing it?). For example: Soccer match. You are not practicing soccer, you are playing it.
actually duo seems to use practicar for playing, so your answer does not resolve anything.
- 22
- 20
- 16
- 157
Praticar means "to practice", as in "to exercise". It's mostly interchangeable with jugar unless you don't actually "play" the sport, i.e. it's not a game sport, like fencing - "praticar (la) esgrima".
Also you should use only praticar when you're actually just talking about a training session.
- 21
- 9
I thought "a" followed a transitive verb when the direct object was a person or personal pronoun. El sigue a ella. That logic doesn't follow here. Is this just a peculiarity of jugar?
- 15
- 2
Jugar = "to play" jugar +a = to play (something). So they like to play would use jugar. They like to play tennis would use jugar a.
- 18
- 11
- 74
In most of the English speaking world, football means futbol . It does not refer to that bastardization of rugby played in the United States. Duolingo should recognize that
