Tricky expressions - 16/17 ep.8

Welcome

Rich: Hello my name’s Rich and welcome to this week’s Premier Skills English podcast.

Jack: Hi everyone. I’m Jack and every week we talk about football and help you with your English.

Rich: We’re going to be talking about the latest action in the Premier League and the language focus is on idioms which are expressions that are often difficult to understand.

Jack: We have some more pronunciation practice, a new football phrase for you and this week’s Premier League prediction.

Rich: But, let’s begin by talking about what’s been happening on the website this week.

Social

Rich: In our podcast last week, we asked you about Gareth Barry who has now made an amazing 601 Premier League appearances. We asked you what qualities a player needed to play in the Premier League for 18 years.

Jack: I think Gunner_UZ from Uzbekistan hit the nail on the head when he said Gareth Barry was reliable. Barry can always be trusted to do a good job. When a car is reliable it means it never breaks down and Barry has had very few injuries in his career.

Rich: Gunner_UZ hit the nail on the head with that one - and that is also an interesting idiom and it means to be exactly right about something. What else has been happening on the website?

Jack: We’ve got a new player article. It’s all about Leicester’s new Algerian striker - Islam Slimani. He scored twice on his debut and in the article we take a look at some of the best Premier League debuts.

Rich: And on the Islam Slimani page we’ve got a vote for you to say who you think made the best ever Premier League debut. Was it Slimani? Or one of the other players we talk about in the article. Let us know what you think in the comments and the vote on that page.

Jack: This week’s Football English quiz is also on that page. So have a look when you have a minute. We’ve also got lots more about fantasy football - check out how the Premier Skills team did in Gameweek 6 on our Fantasy Football page - there is a link on the side of this page.

Rich: Yeah and don’t give up! Davilillons had his best week yet last week and scored 61 points to get him climbing up the Premier Skills League!

Latest news/Language Focus

Jack: In the last section we spoke about an idiom. The idiom was ‘to hit the nail on the head’ and it means to be exactly right or correct. An idiom is an expression that has a non-literal meaning and they can be difficult to understand.

Rich: So, a hammer is a tool. You use a hammer to hit nails into a wall or into wood. Nails are small pieces of metal. You might use a hammer to hit a nail into the wall if you want to hang a photo or a painting in your house.

Jack: The problem is that when we use idioms it’s often not useful if you know the words in the expression. Knowing the words ‘hammer’ and ‘nail’ might not help you understand the phrase ‘to hit the nail on the head’.

Rich: You often need to learn the idiom separately through seeing it used in context and in this next section we’re going to use a few different idioms because football uses lots of them!

Jack: We’re going to talk about last weekend’s Premier League matches and use some different idioms.

Rich: When you hear a new idiom we want you to pause the podcast and write down the idiom or try to remember it. Then, listen again and try to think about the meaning. There are seven idioms to find. Right away we go.

Jack: So, what’s been happening in the Premier League this week, Rich?

Rich: Manchester City keep winning. That’s six wins out of six in the Premier League and ten out of ten in all competitions since Pep Guardiola arrived as manager.

Jack: They’re looking really good - especially with Sergio Aguero back with a bang after his suspension. What about everybody else?

Rich: Well, the other big teams are not going to let City run away with the Premier League title. There were big wins for Manchester Utd (4-1 against Leicester), Liverpool (5-1 against Hull City) and Arsenal (3-0 against Chelsea).

Jack: Yes, we’ve only played six matches so there is still everything to play for! But, the other teams need to carry on playing well so we don’t see City sailing off into the distance!

Rich: But it’s not looking so good for some other Premier League teams. After a good start under their new manager, Antonio Conte, Chelsea have lost their last two matches

Jack: And Leicester have been brought down to earth after their fantastic season last year. They’ve now lost three Premier League matches - that’s the same amount they lost in the whole of last season!

Rich: But I think Sunderland have the most problems. They are bottom of the Premier League with just one point. They blew a big chance to get their first win last weekend. They were winning 2-0 with thirty minutes left to play but they lost 3-2 at home to Crystal Palace.

Jack: Christian Benteke got a last-gasp winner in that match! It was a great header but the marking wasn’t great.

Rich: Right then. Did you hear all those idioms? If you didn’t hear seven have a listen to this section again.

Jack: When you have found all seven, have a look at activity 2 on the podcast page - the title is idioms! Here you can look at the meanings and try to match each idiom to its correct meaning.

Rich: We hope that by listening to us use the idioms you should be able to remember what they mean in the activity. Let us know in the comments section if you found this activity useful or not.

Pronunciation

Jack: We’re going to take a look at something called consonant clusters. A consonant is a letter or sound such as ‘d’ ‘p’ or ‘k’.

Rich: A cluster means something that is grouped together. A consonant cluster is a group of consonants without vowels between them. Normally, words are formed by consonants and vowels so consonant clusters can often be difficult to say.Jack: They can be especially difficult if there are no consonant clusters in your first language. There aren’t any clusters in Arabic or Spanish so they can be difficult for speakers of these languages. In English, you can sometimes have four consonant sounds together. These often come at the start of words.

Rich: For example, ‘splash’ has an ‘s’ followed by ‘p’ and then ‘l’. Another example is ‘twelfths’ here you have four consonant sounds, a ‘l’, an ‘f’, a ‘th’ and an ‘s’. One of the longest consonant cluster is in the word ‘rhythm’ - you have 6 consonants together and no vowels at all.

Jack: There are some difficult tongue twisters that include consonant clusters. Have a go at these. I’ll say it slowly and then more quickly. Try to repeat.

      ‘He threw three free throws.’

     'The sixth twisty crisp'

Rich: Crisp is a really tricky word to say. It’s sometimes easier to say chips.

Jack: That’s what they call crisps in America. Chips are hot in the UK.

Rich: It’s quite confusing maybe we should have a podcast about differences between American and British words like football and soccer.

Football Phrase

Rich: Have you got a football phrase for us this week?

Jack: Yes, I have, but first last week’s football phrase. It was standing ovation. A standing ovation is when a crowd that is sitting down stand up and clap, applaud and cheer a special performance. Standing ovations are common in theatres but now that most fans sit down at football matches they are becoming more and more common in football stadiums, too.

Rich: Well done to Kwesimanifest from Ghana, Giorgi from Georgia, Gunner_UZ from Uzbekistan, Davilillons from Spain and Elghoul from Algeria. You all got the right answer.

Jack: This week’s phrase is another idiom and is quite difficult so well done if you get this one. The idiom is ‘** ** * ******** *** * ******’ and it is used to describe something that lasts a long time so there is no point in using all of your energy straight away. The idiom uses two types of running race. The first is the longest running race you can do and the second is what Usain Bolt does in the 100 metres. The Premier League season is * ******** *** * ****** so Manchester City have started fast but who knows what will happen in May?

Rich: That is a difficult one. Did you know that Usain Bolt was a big Manchester Utd fan?

Prediction

Jack: We all predicted the right result in the Arsenal - Chelsea match last week. So that’s one point for me, you and our Premier Skills listeners. But, nobody got the right score which is remember worth 3 points. What match are you going to talk about this week, Rich?

Rich: There is no doubt what the big match is this week. There are only two teams in the Premier League that are still unbeaten and that’s Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City and the two teams go head to head (another idiom there) at White Hart Lane, home of Tottenham Hotspur. We all know that City have had a fantastic start to the season and look unstoppable but Spurs have moved quietly into second spot and are also looking good. I think City will drop their first points of the season but both teams will still be unbeaten after this one. Final score: Tottenham 1-1 Manchester City

Jack: City look too good at the moment. I.think City will win 2-1.

Rich: Remember to make your prediction in our vote at the bottom of the page in our Premier Prediction League!

Jack: Right, that’s all we have time for this week. Don’t forget to write your answers to our questions and make a guess at our football phrase in the comments below. And remember to take a look at our Fantasy Football page and join in the discussions!

Rich: Bye for now and enjoy your football!