You can’t play the cricket, can you?

Today’s English
March 8th, 2017

No one can play the chess or the football.  Do you know the reason?  In English, we should not use the article “the" before the names of game.

1.I played cricket with my friends. (Not the cricket…)
2.We doubted whether he was playing volleyball for our team or against our team. (Not the volleyball)

If somebody is behaving not seriously with you and is trying to cheat you, especially by hiding your things, you can try the expression “play (silly) games with me"
1.It’s already late. Don’t play silly games with me. Give me my bike key.
2.Are you playing games with me? Tell me what really happened. (=Are you trying to cheat me?)

If you suspect that somebody is doing something secretly, you can use the expression “what’s your game?”
1.What are you doing here in my room? What’s your game?
2.I know, you are planning something against him. Tell me- what’s your game?

There are two more useful expressions:
1.Be ahead of the game = know more about recent developments
He knows all the recent developments in Computer engineering. He is really ahead of the game.
You will lose the interview if you are not ahead of the game.

2.Play a cat-and-mouse game = to be in severe fight often changing your behaviour patterns
He is playing a cat-and-mouse game with his HOD.
Of course, in the final, everyone has to play a cat-and-mouse game with the opponent team.

(Today is woman’s day. So enjoy playing a cat-and-mouse game with your spouse, will you?)