How to Say “I play _ (sports / instruments).” in Japanese

How do you say “I play basketball.” or “I play the guitar.” in Japanese?

Today’s phrase is :

I play _ (sports / instruments).

_ やってるよ。

 yatteruyo

If you want to speak politely, you can say :

_ やってます。

 yattemasu

When you want to say “I play _ .” in Japanese, put the name of the sport or instrument you play just before “やってるよ” or “やってます”.

For example, if you want to say “I play basketball.”, you can say like this :

  • basketball = バスケットボール basuketto bōru

We often say “バスケ basuke” for short.

バスケやってるよ。

 basuke yatteruyo

Or politely :

バスケやってます。

 basuke yattemasu

If you want to say “I play the guitar.”, you can say like this :

  • guitar = ギター gitā

ギターやってるよ。

 gitā yatteruyo

Or politely :

ギターやってます。

 gitā yattemasu


バスケ
basketball

ギター
the guitar

やってるよ
I play