to play pretend
4
2.9
- phrasal verb
- /pleɪ prɪˈtɛnd/
- Baby Talk
:
fingir
- My little brother loves to play pretend as a superhero during playtime.
If you like just have you feel like playing pretend, it's for you.
- If you like just have you feel like playing pretend, it's for you.
- So what's going to happen when that now what I said, what they're doing is they're playing pretend and extend.
Examples
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lt's fun to play pretend.
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Didn't you ever play pretend when you were a kid?
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Do you remember the last time you went out with friends as a kid and just played pretend the whole day?
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Then, you can play pretend school at home.
Blog text (29) -
"To escape that, we started to play pretend."
Blog text (23) -
As a child, I spent my time outside riding my bike, climbing trees, and playing pretend.
Blog text (15) -
If I can't travel in my real life, I might as well play pretend and visit Rome right here.
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When I was younger, I loved Myst just for walking around and playing pretend.
Blog text (33) -
Let's play pretend.
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Playing pretend never really died out with Wolf, even after it became uncool to do so during recess.
Blog text (31)
Synonyms
∞
2.5
Behave in a way to trick or amuse someone
24
3.7
To perform a scene or feeling like a short play
17
3.8
Pretend something is real for fun or play
2
6.1
To act out a scene to practice or show how something happens
How Imaginative
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to engage in imaginative or make-believe play' is directly derivable from combining 'play' (engage in playful activity) with 'pretend' (to act as if something false is true). This compositional pattern for children's make‑believe is cross-linguistically common and therefore immediately comprehensible to a B1 learner who knows both constituents.
Etymology
Play pretend comes from the simple scene of children making stories with toys: they play by using their imagination and they pretend that a toy or role is real. So, it means 'to imagine or act as if something is real'.