You "show" someone a picture. You "---" someone a song?

In Maltese, we have a verb meaning "to show" corresponding to "to see/to look", and we have a different verb corresponding to "to hear/to listen":

inti tara stampa (you look at a picture.) ---- jiena nurilek stampa (I show you a picture)

inti tisma' diska (you listen to a song.) ----- jiena nsemmagħlek diska (I 'show' you a song)

In English, do you "show someone a song" (sounds weird to me) or is there a verb that corresponds more directly to the Maltese insemmgħek?

Solution 1:

I don't know anything about Maltese grammar, but I want to guess that nurik and nsemmgħek mean, respectively 'cause to look' and 'cause to listen'. Some languages have standard ways of converting one verb to a causative verb (one that means 'to cause to do'). As an example, in Classical Nahuatl the suffix -ti turns any verb into a causative verb. So the word cueponi could mean bloom (flowers), then cueponaltia to cause flowers to bloom.

In English there is no automatic way to make a verb into a causative verb. If you have a pair like die and kill (cause to die), then that is just your good luck that you have a causative verb corresponding to die (Classical Nahuatl has miqui die and mictia kill, using the same -ti suffix).

So there is no single word in English that means cause to listen. If you say Thomas played Molly a song that means that Thomas played a song for Molly's benefit. Any English transitive verb can take a benefactive reading using this construction (think of the Bob Dylan song that goes God said to Abraham, kill me a son). Play is probably the best word you could use, but it doesn't mean cause to listen.

Solution 2:

In English, we would usually use the word play. That covers both the act of performing the song on an instrument (perhaps while singing, if the instrument permits) and the act of playing a recording of the song. If you give an a cappella rendition, live, you would use the word sing.

Solution 3:

Per @bye's answer, in the case of a song, you'd probably play or sing it to someone else (depending on how you cause the sound to be made). But if you wanted the band at your private party to play some particular song that you can't think of the name of, the bandleader might say:-

"You hum it and we'll play it" (just give us idea of what it sounds like; we'll probably recognise it)

More generic verbs (which could also be used of a taste or smell as well as a sight or sound) are:-

present - to offer for observation, examination, or consideration; show or display
demonstrate - to give a demonstration

Solution 4:

Play is good if you want something specifically for sound, but I would generally use show here. It refers to introducing or presenting new information in a variety of contexts, not strictly related to sight. For example, “He showed me a great new sandwich shop”. I find it no different than saying “I see” to metaphorically mean “I understand”.