Premier Skills English Podcast 10

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

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

Jack: So, what’s happening this week, Rich? Are Premier League players back at work yet?

Rich: Yes, most of the players at most of the clubs have been back in training for nearly two weeks.

Jack: It doesn’t give many of them a long break, does it?

Rich: Well, some players like Alexis Sanchez at Arsenal or Sergio Aguero at Manchester City have a bit longer.

Jack: Why's that?

Rich: They were playing in the Copa America, weren’t they? So they’ve been given a bit of extra time off.

Jack: So, I imagine this is a bit of a boring time for players.

Rich: Maybe, they have a lot of training to do to get back to peak fitness.

Jack: What do you mean by peak fitness, Rich?

Rich: Well, peak fitness is when a player’s body is the fittest it can be. So there’s lots of running in pre-season as players need to get their strength and stamina back after a couple of weeks on holiday.

Jack: What’s the difference between strength and stamina?

Rich: Your strength shows how strong you are. Strong is the adjective and strength is the noun. Stamina is how long you can use your strength.

Jack: So players want to be as strong as possible for as long as possible. But just training all the time must be boring.

Rich: It’s not just training at the moment.

Jack: So, what else are they doing?

Rich: Many clubs are also on pre-season tours.

Jack: That’s true. Premier League teams are all over the world at the moment. Do you know about the Barclays Asia Trophy?

Rich: No, what’s that?

Jack: It’s a four-team competition in Asia. It takes place every 2 years and in the past it’s been held in Hong Kong, China, Malaysia and Thailand.

Rich: And where is it this year?

Jack: For the first time it’s being held in Singapore.

Rich: What’s this word ‘held’ that you keep using, Jack?

Jack: Ahh! This is the past participle of the verb hold. To hold something means to have something like a competition in a specific place. I used the past participle because I was using the passive voice.

Rich: Come on Jack, these podcasts are about football and vocabulary, not grammar.

Jack: You’re right Rich, but if anyone’s interested, there’s a link to the learn english grammar pages about the passive below. Can you come up with another example?

Rich: How about: the World Cup was held in Brazil.

Jack: Yes, and the Olympics were held in London in 2012

Rich: and the next World Cup will be held in Russia.

Jack: Yes, exactly.

Rich: And who’s in the Asia Trophy this year?

Jack: A Singapore XI (eleven), Everton, Stoke City and Arsenal.

Rich: Well, I think Arsenal will take the trophy home.

Jack: We’ll have to wait and see, but I think you’re right... Pre-season isn’t a boring time for the players.

Rich: Yeah, I wouldn’t mind flying out to Singapore for a week or two!

Jack: Well that’s all for now. Thanks for listening.

Rich: If you’re listening to this on itunes or elsewhere, come back to Premier Skills English for some language activities, a quiz and lots more. You can find us at www.britishcouncil.org/premierskillsenglish.

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.