Hard: Fit as a fiddle

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 as fit as a fiddle. 

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. 

Rich: Remember you can find transcripts for all of our podcasts on the Premier Skills English website.

Jack: 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. These phrases can be used to talk about football but are often useful when talking about other topics.

Rich: The phrase we are looking at in this episode is: as fit as a fiddle.

Jack: We’ve been looking at words and phrases connected to fitness and health in our podcasts recently and this is another one.

Rich: In this episode, we’re also going to look at the structure of the idiom as there are many idioms that follow this pattern: as plus adjective plus as to say one thing is the same as another.

Jack: As fit as a fiddle means to be in good physical shape or condition.

Rich: You need to be as fit as a fiddle to play professional sports.

Jack: That’s true. We also use the phrase as fit as a fiddle to talk about people who have been sick and are now better.

Rich: A player may have been ill and a journalist may ask how the player is:

Jack: Mohammed Salah was out of action with a virus last week. Is he going to be involved this weekend?

Rich: Definitely. He’s as fit as a fiddle and raring to go.

Jack: We often use this phrase to describe older people who are very healthy. My grandmother is in her nineties and she’s as fit as a fiddle.

Rich: As fit as a fiddle is an idiomatic expression but it’s also a simile. A simile is an expression that compares one thing with another.

Jack: There are lots of them in English. Here are a few other examples that you might hear when speaking about football. What do you think they mean?

Rich: That’s great defending. She put her head right in the danger zone. As brave as a lion.

Jack: He’s been steady as a rock at the back today. Nothing’s got past him.

Rich: The ball breaks loose and as quick as a flash it’s in the back of the net. A great goal. 

Jack: That’s a foul. As clear as day. It’s got to be a penalty.

Rich: You may have noticed that the first as in these similies is optional - we often omit it when we are speaking but it doesn’t change the meaning. 

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. 

Comment

Discuss

Are you as fit as a fiddle?

Can you think of a player to suit the other similes we introduced in this episode?