Question
Updated on
4 Dec 2022
- Korean
-
English (US)
Question about English (US)
Hi, can I ask you if the following sentences sound natural? 🙂
(1) He asked me to play the song on the piano.
(2) He asked me to play the song by the piano.
Hi, can I ask you if the following sentences sound natural? 🙂
(1) He asked me to play the song on the piano.
(2) He asked me to play the song by the piano.
(1) He asked me to play the song on the piano.
(2) He asked me to play the song by the piano.
Answers
4 Dec 2022
Featured answer
- English (US)
The first one is very natural!
We wouldn’t say “by the piano”. So number 1 is perfect.
Read more comments
- English (US)
The first one is very natural!
We wouldn’t say “by the piano”. So number 1 is perfect.
- Korean
@drone1625 Oh, I see! Thank you very much! Since ‘play the piano’ is a fixed expression, I got confused about using ‘song’ with ‘play the piano’ 😅
- English (US)
- Korean
@drone1625 Thank you for the encouragement! If I change ‘piano’ to ‘guitar’ or ‘drum’, can I still say
“He asked me to play the song on the guitar.”
or
“He asked me to play the song on the drum.”
? 😅
Or do I have to say
“He asked me to play the song with the guitar.”
“He asked me to play the song on the guitar.”
or
“He asked me to play the song on the drum.”
? 😅
Or do I have to say
“He asked me to play the song with the guitar.”
- English (US)
@lller That’s a good question!
I think the answer is yes. Definitely for all the instruments you said, guitar, violin, drum, you can use it.
I can’t think of any right now that wouldn’t follow that pattern, but I don’t know that for certain.
Words for instruments sometimes confuse me too 😅
I you can think of other instruments you want to know about, I can tell you if those will work, but I don’t want to say that you can use it for all because I’m not sure.
Sorry!
Edit: I think that most intstruments you can say this. To be honest, if there are any that you can’t, it’s just nit-picky (not really important) and if you say “play the song on (any instrument)” people will know what you mean.
- Korean
@drone1625 Thank you for your answer again! Just to double check, you mean “play the song on (any instrument)” sounds okay, right? Not “play the song with (any instrument)”? 😅
- English (US)
@lller Yes! “On” is best here.
Oh, I see what you mean! Sorry, I didn’t notice that you said “with the guitar”. Yes, I mean “on”. Sorry about that! If you said “with the guitar”…. I don’t think it sounds wrong. But I think “on” sounds better.
- Korean
- English (US)

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