How to say "... is playing ..."

Question

I read the translation of "El miércoles Alex juega al fútbol." is "On Wednesday, Alex is playing soccer." and that the translation of "El domingo Cristina hace deporte." is "On Sunday, Cristina is playing sports.".

First, I don't understand why the first verbs for each are different. Also, I don't fully understand the first translation, isn't "al" "to the"?

Which translation is better?

Thanks!

Hello, welcome to the forum! - rac1, Jul 12, 2012

Answer 1

Hi, Daniel, welcome to the forum!

Some corrections in your translation:

"El miércoles Alex juega al fútbol." is "On Wednesday, Alex plays soccer." and that the translation of "El domingo Cristina hace deporte." is "On Sunday, Cristina plays sports.".

Your first question:

First, I don't understand why the first verbs for each are different.

Sometimes Spanish uses "jugar" for sports (jugar al tenis) and sometimes "practicar" (practica la natación) and sometimes "hacer" (Hacer deporte). Look here and here for examples.

Also, I don't fully understand the first translation, isn't "al" "to the"?

In some Spanish speaking countries you would say "jugar a" + name of the game, so "jugar a" + "el fútbol" becomes "jugar al fútbol" ("a" + "el" always changes to "al"). See this thread for a more complete answer.

P.s. If someone is playing a sport right now and you want to use the present progressive, you'd say "Judy is playing soccer" = Judy está jugando al fútbol.

Muchas gracias Mariana :) - daniel_cooke, Jul 12, 2012

Nice explanation, Mariana! - Noetol, Jul 12, 2012