Sports are done, games are played: hacer, jugar a, practicar and the extra se
English 'do' covers running, football and yoga alike. Spanish picks the verb by whether the activity has an opponent and a score. For example: “Juego al tenis los martes y hago yoga los jueves” — I play tennis on Tuesdays and do yoga on Thursdays. A rule from the Spanish course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
English 'do' covers running, football and yoga alike. Spanish picks the verb by whether the activity has an opponent and a score.
Jugar a is only for games played against somebody: juego al tenis, jugar al fútbol, jugar a las cartas. The a is obligatory and fuses with the article into al. Jugar fútbol sounds foreign in Spain.
Hacer covers everything with no score: hacer deporte, hacer yoga, hacer pesas. Practicar is the same thing but more formal: you write it on a form rather than say it to a friend.
The other half of sports language is se, which turns the action back on the doer. Ducharse is to shower, apuntarse to sign up, lesionarse to get injured. Without se, duchar al niño means washing the child.
Table
| activity | verb | how to say it | why |
|---|---|---|---|
| football, tennis | jugar a | juego al tenis | there's an opponent and a score |
| sport in general | hacer | hago deporte | no score |
| yoga, gymnastics | hacer | hago yoga | the same |
| swimming, boxing | practicar | practico natación | a word for forms |
| running, cycling | its own verb | corro, monto en bici | motion in itself |
| sign up | apuntarse | me apunto al gimnasio | reflexive se |
| get injured | lesionarse | me he lesionado | reflexive se |
| pain | doler | me duele el hombro | like gustar |
By example
- Juego al tenis los martes y hago yoga los juevesI play tennis on Tuesdays and do yoga on Thursdays
- Me apunté al gimnasio y a la semana me lesionéI signed up at the gym and a week later got injured
- Después de la clase me ducho y me cambio en el vestuarioAfter the class I shower and change in the locker room
How the rule settles in your head
A rule is not memorized from an explanation. It is memorized from an attempt to use it and a mistake — that is why the app delivers it mixed in with words, not as a separate lesson: it resurfaces exactly where you forgot it.
Frequently asked
Sports are done, games are played: how does it work in Spanish?
English 'do' covers running, football and yoga alike. Spanish picks the verb by whether the activity has an opponent and a score.
What does it look like in an example sentence Spanish?
“Juego al tenis los martes y hago yoga los jueves” — I play tennis on Tuesdays and do yoga on Thursdays. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.