Both "play" and "playing" is correct here. People often see him (who is) playing basketball on the playground at the weekend. People often see him (who) play basketball on the playground at the weekend. So essentially both carry the same meaning.
Is there no way to state the generic playing without a direct object? Or is "playing" inherently a transitive verb? Cambridge Dictionary first sense seems to suggest intransitive, but it seems to always have a "with him" or "on the street" after it. Is it natural to have this kind of conversation: "What were you doing?" "I was playing." "Oh, what did you play?/Who do you play with?"
Is it idiomatic to say "I just played" or "I was just playing" in ...
+1, though it's a bit of an oversimplification; something like "she who is playing the piano" or "she of the long hair" is grammatical but literary, whereas the OP's *"she playing the piano" is out-and-out ungrammatical.
Played myself in scrabble. I won! What is the difference between playing with someone and playing someone? What if someone is replaced with the speaker themselves? Is the sentence in the quote cor...
meaning - What difference is between playing with someone and playing ...
He had been playing for two hours. This one is similar to second one in the meaning, but it emphasizes that the action of playing was completely done; If he did anything else, he must have done it after this action.
He was playing for two hours or he had been playing for two hours