Podcast 47 - Future Perfect

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: This week, we’re going to talk about the latest news from the Premier League and we’re going to speak about what football might look like in the future. The language focus is on the future perfect, which we use to talk about the future when one event happens before another or before a specific time.

Jack: And later, Rich will make this week’s Premier League prediction and we have another football phrase for you to guess in our football vocabulary game.

Rich: There was a fantastic match between Leicester and West Ham at the top of the table. It finished 2-2 with a goal and a red card for Jamie Vardy, two penalties and a last minute equaliser for The Foxes.

Jack: The point Leicester earned means they went 8 points clear of Tottenham at the top!

Rich: We’re recording this podcast on Monday and Tottenham are playing this evening so we don’t know if Leicester’s point was good enough.

Jack: For us, you’re listening to this in the future so ... By now, Spurs might have reduced the gap to 5 points.

Rich: We'll speak a bit more about this week’s Premier League action later on.

Rich: We had a new football phrase for you to guess last week. I think it was quite difficult so well done to those of you who got it right.

Jack: The phrase was counter-attack. Leicester’s first goal against West Ham was a great counter-attack. The goalkeeper, Kasper Schmeichel threw the ball to Riyad Mahrez, who passed it to N’golo Kante, who passed it to Jamie Vardy, who scored.

Rich: I think it took about 10 seconds from Schmeichel to the goal. Leicester counter-attack really well. They’re a great counter-attacking team.

Jack: Well done to Aragorn1986 from Montenegro, Pavlo from Ukraine, HassanRaja447 from Pakistan, Kwesimanifest from Ghana, Elghoul from Algeria, M.S Aboelsafa from Egypt and AssemJuve from Palestine. All of you got the right answer!

Rich: In last week’s language focus, I made some really bad excuses for not doing my homework and in last week’s questions, we asked you to think of some excuses.

Jack: My favourite was from Kwesimanifest in Ghana. He said that he would tell his teacher that his homework had fallen in his mum’s cooking pot when she was making soup.

Rich: I liked the one from Aragorn1986. He said that he would tell the teacher that there had been a blackout. I’m not sure this would have stopped him doing his homework in the daytime!

Jack: Before we move on to the next section, I thought I’d tell everyone about our vote for Player of the season.

Rich: Ah yes. This is on our homepage. You can find it on the PFA Player of the Year article. Who’s going to win?

Jack: I don’t know who’s going to win the PFA award, but on our vote it looks like Riyad Mahrez at the moment. Mahrez has got 40% of the votes with Jamie Vardy on 31%. Harry Kane, Mesut Ozil and N’Golo Kante have less than 30% between them.

Rich: That’s a surprise I thought that Kane would have more. Maybe Vardy’s red card will change how people feel about him?

Jack: The poll is open until Sunday if you want to vote. The PFA Player of the Year is also announced on Sunday so we’ll tell you next week if your vote is the same as the  PFA Player of the season winner.

Rich: What’s the latest from the Premier League, Jack?

Jack: We’ve spoken a little already about the teams at the top so let’s start with the teams battling relegation, trying to avoid the drop into the Championship next season.

Rich: It wasn’t a good weekend for Aston Villa. They were beaten by Manchester Utd and have been relegated for the first time since 1987. Nearly 30 years! They have played every Premier League season since it started - one of only 7 clubs to do this. Do you know the others, Jack?

Jack: I know Arsenal have NEVER been relegated. The others are probably Man Utd, Liverpool ...

Rich: I had to check, but the one you haven’t got is Everton!

Jack: Of course! Anyway, Villa are down. Which other two clubs are going to join them?

Rich: This is very exciting. It looks like it will be two out of three because there are just 3 points separating Norwich City, Sunderland and Newcastle Utd.

Jack: It was a good weekend for the teams from the North-East. Newcastle won 3-0 at home to Swansea and Sunderland beat Norwich 3-0 in a real six-pointer!

Rich: 6 pointer? I think we’re going to have to explain that one. Did Sunderland get 6 points for winning that match?

Jack: No, they didn’t get 6 points. They got 3 points like with all matches, but we say a match is a six-pointer when two teams who are close to each other in the table play against each other.

Rich: I think it’s because you can win 3 points but you can also stop the other team from winning 3 points. We only use this phrase near the end of the season and we might say ‘relegation six-pointer’, like with this match between Sunderland and Norwich.

Jack: I think Sunderland might escape again, you know. Anyway, back to the top of the table. Sergio Aguero scored a hat-trick and Manchester City continue their great form after last week’s European win against Paris St.Germain. Liverpool won again. Anything to say about last week, Rich?

Rich: Good win against Bournemouth but of course everybody has been talking about the win against Borussia Dortmund last week. What can I say? It was a great atmosphere and an unbelievable win.

Jack: And if Liverpool win the Europa League they will be playing in the Champions League next season!

Rich: Yes, I know. Jurgen Klopp is really creating a good team.

Jack: So, we know Leicester are still at the top, but I said at the beginning of the podcast that we don’t know what the Spurs result is this week because they play tonight, that is on Monday night.

Rich: You said, ‘By now, Spurs might have reduced the gap to five points.’

Jack: In this sentence, we’re talking about one action in the future happening before a certain time and to do this, you need to use a special form and this is what we’re going to look at in this week’s language focus.

Rich: When we talk about one event that happens before another or before a specific time in the future we can use something called the future perfect.

Jack: The future perfect is created by using will or another modal verb like ‘should’, ‘might’ and ‘must’ plus ‘have’ plus the past participle or the third form of the verb.

Rich: We change the modal verb depending how sure we are that something will happen. We can use ‘might’ or ‘may’ if  we’re not sure something will happen or ‘will’ if we are certain.

Jack: So, I said ‘Spurs might have reduced the gap to five points’. In this sentence, I used might as the modal verb because I’m not sure that Spurs will win. I then used ‘have’ and ‘reduce’ in the third form of the verb or what is sometimes called the past participle.

Rich: Before this, Jack said ‘By the time you listen to this’ which is a specific time in the future. For example, we recorded the podcast on Monday morning, Spurs played on Monday night and you listened to the podcast on Wednesday.

Jack: So we’re talking about two times in the future. The match and you listening to the podcast. The match was played before you listened, but both of these events are in the future for us. We use the future perfect to explain that the match happened before you listen to the podcast.

Rich: So we have: By the time you listen to this podcast which uses the (present simple for the future) and Spurs might have reduced the gap to five points which uses the (future perfect).

Jack: The phrase ‘by the time’ looks a bit complicated, but if you think about it like ‘when’ and ‘already’ it becomes much easier to understand.

Rich: So we could also say ‘When you listen to this podcast, Spurs might have already reduced the gap to five points’.

Jack: For the next minute or so Rich and I are going to talk about how football might change in the next few years. We’d like you to listen for examples of the future perfect. Let’s imagine what football will be like in 2030. Do you think there will be many changes?

Rich: Well, yes I’m sure there will be loads. Liverpool will have won the Premier League at least 10 more times maybe Leicester will have become European Champions.

Jack: Yeah, OK. Let’s look at some more possibilities or changes. What about rule changes? I like the idea of points for goals. So, ‘By 2030, the Premier League might have started giving three points for a win and bonus points if you score three or more goals in a match.

Rich: I think that sounds like a good rule. I know that they do something similar in rugby. I think one thing that will have changed by 2030 is how we use technology. Twenty years from now the Premier League will be using technology for lots of things. Technology will have been introduced for penalty decisions, offside and maybe other things, too.

Jack: That’s a good one and very possible because we already use it to say if there is a goal or not. I’ve got another one. The Champions League might have become a regular league by 2030. What do you think?

Rich: I’m not sure I think there will always be a bigger rivalry between Arsenal and Spurs and Liverpool and Everton than teams from different countries.

Jack: You might be right. What about some things that are less possible or less likely?

Rich: What about green cards? I heard about this the other week. The idea is that if a player gets a green card he has to leave the pitch for 10 minutes but can then return. It’s worse than a yellow card but not as bad as a red card. They might have started using them by 2030.

Jack: I can’t see that happening, but you never know!

Rich: So, we used a few examples of the future perfect and we’d like to see you using the future perfect in our comments section when you answer this week’s questions. Question 1: What will have happened in football by 2030? Which clubs will have become the most successful?

Jack: Question 2: Rich and I spoke about a few rule changes that might have happened in football by 2030. Do you think these changes will happen? What other changes might have happened by 2030?

Rich: Question 3: I’d like you to imagine your life in the future. By 2030, what will you have done? Where will you have been? Who will you have met?

Jack: And remember, if you want us to correct your comments just write ‘correct me’ at the beginning of your message.

Rich: Right, do you have a new football phrase for our listeners to guess, Jack?

Jack: Yes, I do. This week’s football phrase is **************** and is very relevant this week after some great matches. The phrase means to win a match from a losing position. Last week, Liverpool were losing 2-0 and 3-1 to Borussia Dortmund but they **** **** ****** to win 4-3. The phrase is also sometimes used to talk about team’s that never give up and have great team spirit.

Rich: It was a great performance from Liverpool and the fans were fantastic.

Jack: Now it’s time for your prediction. I saw that you went for a Leicester win last week?

Rich: Yes, I know but I wasn’t the only one! But some of you predicted the right score.

Jack: Aragorn1986 and Kwesimanifest both correctly predicted a draw but a special well done to Alex From Ukraine and HassanRaja447 from Pakistan who successfully predicted a 2-2 draw! The exact score!

Rich: This week I’m going to move away from the Premier League and see if my predictions are any better in the FA Cup. The semi-finals of the world’s oldest football competition are taking place at Wembley Stadium this weekend. In the first semi-final, it’s Everton against Manchester Utd. Utd and Everton are desperate to win the Cup this season and put a trophy in their cabinet. I think Utd will just have the edge and I’m going for them to win it. The second semi-final is Watford and Crystal Palace and I think it’s much harder to predict. I think it will be a real battle and I think Watford will win it in a penalty shoot-out. Final scores: Everton 0-1 Manchester Utd and Watford 1-1 Crystal Palace (Watford winning on penalties).

Jack: I love penalty shoot-outs!

Rich: Right, anyway that’s it for today - we’ve run out of time! Thanks for listening. And don’t forget to write your answers to our questions, your predictions and anything you want to say about the website or football English in the comments below.

Jack: Don’t forget if you sign in, you can score points to see if you can get your club, your country and your name to the top of our leaderboard.

Rich:  Bye for now and enjoy your football!