Hard: To go down like a sack of potatoes

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 hard so we’re looking at more difficult football phrases and idioms.

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 looks at the phrase to go down like a sack of potatoes. 

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 hard so we’re looking at more difficult football phrases and idioms. 

Rich: The phrase we are looking at in this episode is: to go down like a sack of potatoes.

Jack: This is a funny phrase - it makes me laugh anyway. The phrase is connected to falling to the floor a bit too easily.

Rich: Have a listen to me and Jack arguing about a penalty decision:

Jack: That’s got to be a penalty! 

Rich: What do you mean? He hardly touched him!

Jack: It’s a tackle from behind. It’s got to be a penalty.

Rich: What are you talking about? He’s felt a slight touch and he’s gone down like a sack of potatoes - it’s never a penalty in a million years!

Jack: Well, the referee’s given it!

Rich: So, to go down like a sack of potatoes means to fall to the floor very easily when tackled. It’s a very informal expression.

Jack: It’s often used to say that the player is exaggerating - making something look better or worse or more important than it really is.

Rich: In these cases, the player is exaggerating how bad the tackle is. He or she is making it look worse than it really is.

Jack: The player is making sure that the referee notices by falling to the floor like a sack of potatoes. 

Rich: A sack of potatoes is very heavy so will fall to the floor very easily if you drop it. I suppose that’s why this phrase is used.

Jack: When fans use the phrase to go down like a sack of potatoes they are often accusing a player of cheating.

Rich: Earlier I said ‘he never touched him and he went down like a sack of potatoes’. I was saying that the player dived - that he fell on the floor on purpose to try to win a penalty for his team.

Jack: You might sometimes hear he’s gone down like he’s been shot which has the same meaning or you might hear the potatoes phrase being used slightly differently.

Rich: A sack is a bag so you might hear he’s gone down like a bag of potatoes there.

Jack: An informal word for a potato is a spud so you might hear he’s gone down like a sack of spuds there.

Final whistle

Rich: There is the final whistle!

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

Rich: Bye for now and enjoy your football.

Comment

Discuss

What do you think when a player goes down like a sack of potatoes?

Is your reaction different if it's a player for your team that goes down like a sack of potatoes?