Medium: Kick off

Premier Vocabulary is a mini-podcast for you to learn football English one word at a time. We have three different levels for you: easy, medium and hard.

This episode is medium so we’re looking at football words and phrases you need to describe what’s happening on the pitch or words and phrases fans and commentators on TV might use. There are lots of phrasal verbs to learn at this level.

Summary

Learn more football vocabulary with Premier Skills English. Each lesson in our Premier Vocabulary section looks at one football word or phrase. This lesson look at the phrase to kick off. 

You can find more lessons on the side of this page.

Transcript

Rich: Hello my name’s Rich and welcome to Premier Skills English - Premier Vocabulary.

Jack: Hi there! I’m Jack. We’re here to help you with your football English. Premier Vocabulary is a mini-podcast for you to learn football English one word at a time. 

Rich: We have three different levels for you: easy, medium and hard.

Jack: This episode is medium so we’re looking at football words and phrases you need to describe what’s happening on the pitch or words and phrases fans and commentators on TV might use. There will be lots of phrasal verbs to learn at this level.

Rich: The phrase we are looking at in this episode is kick-off.

Jack: What time does the Liverpool match kick-off on Saturday?

Rich: I think it kicks off at three. 

Jack: To kick off means to start a football match.

Rich: So, kick off is a verb but can also be a noun. 

Jack: We could also say What time’s kick-off?

Rich: Kick-off is at three.

Jack: Sometimes we see kick-off as two separate words and sometimes we see it as one word, sometimes with a hyphen between the two.

Rich: This can be confusing. The most important thing to remember is whether it’s a verb or a noun.

Jack: The match kicks off at three. Here kick off is a verb phrase so we use two words.

Rich: Kick-off is at three. Here kick-off is a noun so we use a hyphen or just one word. 

Jack: In British English, we usually use a hyphen and in American English, we use one word.

Rich: We can also use kick off more generally. What time will the party kick off? 

Jack: Or at a work meeting your manager might say something like ‘I’d like to kick off by thanking you for all your hard work so far this year’.

Rich: So, kick off also means start or begin in a more general context.

Jack: Kick off is also used in an informal way meaning to become angry or violent.

Rich: You might say: It all kicked off after that bad tackle.

Jack: This means that lots of players from both teams got angry and aggressive towards each other.

Rich: Again we can use this more generally. My dad used to kick off when I arrived home late on a school night when I was a teenager.

Jack: He would get angry?

Rich: Yeah, especially if I hadn’t done any homework.

Jack: There is the final whistle!

Rich: We’ll be back soon with more Premier Vocabulary from Premier Skills English.

Jack: Bye for now and enjoy your football.

Discuss

• What time do matches normally kick off in your country?
• Has a team ever scored directly from the kick-off?

Write your answers in the comments section below.