"I can play A piano" or "I can play THE piano"?

Which one is corret "I can play A pano" or "I can play THE piano"?

I can see that "I can play THE piano" is more often used, why?
Use of "THE" in this case seems very strange to me.

Please help me understand this, I always have a lot of problems with "a" and "the" as those are not present in my native language (Polish).

THE is correct, although I understand your confusion. You were probably taught that "the" refers to one particular thing, but here it seems to refer to all the pianos in the world. Think about it carefully, though.

If you say "I want a cat," what you are saying is that you want ONE cat, but you're not saying which one in particular. (Remember: "a" is the SINGULAR indefinite article.) So if you say "I can play a piano," you are saying that you can play ONE piano, but you're not saying which one in particular. Of course, that doesn't make sense: You can play any piano in the world, not just one. To say that you can play any piano in the world, you use "the." (My dictionary says that "the" "can be also be used before a singular noun to indicate that the noun is generic.")

A couple of other examples, in case you need them:

* The elephant is the largest land animal. (= Elephants, as a group, are the largest land animals.)

* I enjoy the opera. (= I enjoy going to and listening to operas in general.)

Good luck,
George

Great thanks, thats a realy good explanation.

[silversea]

So, we can consider it a rule right? The is used before musical instruments such as play the guitar, or the violin

[tuangpi]

Originally Posted by ghmcal

THE is correct, although I understand your confusion. You were probably taught that "the" refers to one particular thing, but here it seems to refer to all the pianos in the world. Think about it carefully, though.

If you say "I want a cat," what you are saying is that you want ONE cat, but you're not saying which one in particular. (Remember: "a" is the SINGULAR indefinite article.) So if you say "I can play a piano," you are saying that you can play ONE piano, but you're not saying which one in particular. Of course, that doesn't make sense: You can play any piano in the world, not just one. To say that you can play any piano in the world, you use "the." (My dictionary says that "the" "can be also be used before a singular noun to indicate that the noun is generic.")

A couple of other examples, in case you need them:

* The elephant is the largest land animal. (= Elephants, as a group, are the largest land animals.)

* I enjoy the opera. (= I enjoy going to and listening to operas in general.)

Good luck,
George

What about this: I can play piano. (Without any article, meaning I can play any piano in the world.)

[Tdol]

No; if you're talking about the ability, use 'the':
I can play football. (no article for sports)
I can play the piano. (article used for musical instruments)

[Casiopea]

Welcome, George.

That was a wonderful explanation. Additionally, what are your thoughts on the following distribution?

I play the guitar.
I play guitar.

[tuangpi]

Aha. 'The' is used when talking about ability, especially in front of musical instruments?)

I thought I could say 'I can play bass or guitar' to mean I have the ability to play them( in general). However, one can use the article "the" here, but is not necessary so far as I know.