Jugar

Jugar is a Spanish verb that means to participate in play, a game, or a sport, and can also mean to gamble in certain contexts. It covers activities ranging from children's games to organized sports and various forms of gaming. The verb is used with different constructions, most commonly with a preposition a to indicate the game or activity (jugar al fútbol, jugar a las cartas) or with con to indicate playing with a person or object.

Etymology traces jugar to Latin roots related to jest or play, through old Spanish forms. The modern verb retains a typical Spanish pattern of irregularity in the present tense and various mood forms, reflecting its long history of use in everyday speech.

Conjugation and forms. In the present indicative, jugar is a stem-changing verb: yo juego, tú juegas, él juega, nosotros jugamos, vosotros jugáis, ellos juegan. The yo, tú, and third-person forms preserve the stem as jueg-, while the nosotros and vosotros forms are jugamos and jugáis without the stem change. In other tenses, the forms follow standard patterns: preterite jugué, jugaste, jugó, jugamos, jugasteis, jugaron; imperfect jugaba, jugabas, jugaba, jugábamos, jugabais, jugaban. The present subjunctive is juegue, juegues, juegue, juguemos, juguéis, jueguen. The present participle is jugando and the past participle is jugado.

Usage notes. Jugar commonly governs the preposition a when naming the game or sport (jugar al tenis, jugar a las damas). In some dialects, especially in informal speech, the article may be dropped with certain sports (jugar fútbol). The noun juego means both "a game" and "the act of playing," and it appears in phrases such as juego de mesa (board game) or juego en equipo (teamwork play).

See also: juego (noun), juego de azar (gambling), jugar con.