Quote:
Originally Posted by berrypie
hm... 'coz 遊ぶ is more childish? 
For adults you guys say 「やろう」 or 「やります」 (やる. Do it) ???
If you wanna say "Let's play sports" or "Let's play video games" what would you say? |
I wouldn't call 遊ぶ more childish. I'm only saying that you won't hear adults saying to each other 遊ぼう or 遊びましょう too often. If I were to invite another adult to go play softball or a video game, I would definitely say しましょう. (the base verb is する). It's completely wrong to say ソフトボールを遊ぶ or ビデオゲームを遊ぶ. That is why we don't use 遊ぶ when we omit the object. We say ソフトボールをする or ゲームをする. You will also hear やろう or やりましょう. I will never use the verb 遊ぶ in these cases.
Children use the word 遊ぶ more often because they live to play. They ask each other in school 「今日遊べる？」, meaning "Can we play together after school today?" In this case, 遊ぶ only means "to hang around with someone". You don't have to know exactly what you want to do at the time you ask someone, 「今日遊べる？」. Kids play by ear once they gather in the park.
Adults are different. If I asked a lady collegue, 「今日遊べる？」around 4:00 pm, I'll get a slap or a choice word......most likely both. I could get sued if I were in North America for saying it.