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Onizo Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

1. Play train
2. Play trains

Are these all ok? What is the difference?

Thank you
  

Top answer

More context please.

  • More context please.
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7 Answers
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More context please.
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You ask a child if he wants to play train, possibly imitaing a condutor, or just with a train or many.
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If the child will be imitating a train, or pretending to be someone working on the railway, I would say "Do you want to play trains?"

If the child will be playing with a toy train, I would say "Do you want to play with your (toy) train?"

If both conditions are true then you can use either.
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Thank you, GPY.

That means you don't use the singular form. Is there any reasons?

One more thing, you want to pretend getting into a rocketship and flying into space. Would you say "play rocketship" or "play rocketships"?
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I would use the plural in the "rocketship(s)" case too. I suppose I imagine that more than one vehicle is involved. Or perhaps it just feels more idiomatic for no obvious reason.
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Thank you. But you play jump rope, right? Singular?
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onizoThank you. But you play jump rope, right? Singular?
I believe so, although "jump rope" is AmE not used in the UK, so I would not use that myself.

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