Understanding Grammar: What would you do?

Introduction

Jack: Why the long face?

Rich: The thing is I’ve got a bit of a dilemma.

Jack: What’s up? Maybe I can help ...

Rich: Well, you know those situations where you know what the right thing to do is but you want to do something different?

Jack: Ah yes ... I have dilemmas every dinner time. Salad or pizza... salad or pizza...

Rich: Well, er ... something like that I suppose. You see, I’ve been given these tickets for the Merseyside Derby - Everton v Liverpool. And I’d love to go and see it.

Jack: That’s brilliant. What’s the problem?

Rich: It’s the same time as my advanced exams class and it’s the final class before my students take the exam.

Jack: Hmm, yes. That’s a tricky one. I know what you should do. GO TO THE MATCH!

Rich: But it’s a really important exam. My students are depending on me, they can’t have a substitute teacher on the last day.

Jack: I’m only joking. You’ve got to do the class, Rich. They’ll be more matches to see.

Rich: Yeah, I know. Maybe my students will get me a thank you present.

Jack: Yeah, perhaps some tickets to a match.

Welcome - Dilemmas 

Rich: Hello my name’s Rich

Jack: and I’m Jack

Rich: and welcome to this week’s Premier Skills English podcast

Jack: Where we talk about football and help you with your English.

Jack: What’s happening this week, Rich?

Rich: In this week’s podcast, we are going to talk about the language of dilemmas. 

Jack: But first, what is a dilemma? A dilemma is a situation or problem that you face where there is a difficult choice to make. In the opening section, Rich’s dilemma was whether to teach his students before an important exam or go to an important football match.

Rich: I still can’t decide.

Jack: Anyway, in this podcast, we’re going to look at the language we use when speaking about dilemmas. 

Rich: We will focus on modal verbs like should and must and have to but also lots of other words and phrases that we use to discuss problems and speak about dilemmas.

Jack: We’re going to talk about three dilemmas.

Rich: And if you have registered for our Premier Skills Live Activity Week on the Premier Skills English website you will also see lots of extra pages and activities related to this podcast on the activity week welcome page.

Jack: If you haven’t registered for the activity week yet, you can do this now by going to the Premier Skills English website. It’s free, it will help you with your English and if you complete it, you can download a certificate. Click the tab on the menu that says live!

Rich: Finally, don’t forget to listen to the end of this podcast because we have a new football phrase for you to guess.

Topic Focus

Rich: So, we are going to do three roleplays. In each role play, you will hear us talking about a different dilemma.

Jack: We want you to answer four questions while you listen. 1. What is the dilemma? 2. What would Rich do? 3. What would I do? And number four; What would you do?

Rich: Dilemma 1

Rich: Jack, I want you to imagine you are back at school. You are 13 years old.

Jack: 13 years old, right.

Rich: It’s break time and everyone wants to play football. You are a captain and you have to pick your team. All the kids have their hands up saying ‘pick me, ‘pick me’ including your best friend.

Jack: Well, I’d pick my best friend.

Rich: Hold on. Imagine your best friend is terrible at football, should you pick him? Your team will lose. Should you choose your friend or the best player?

Jack: I would still choose my best friend.

Rich: Really? But, what about if a scout was going to watch the game?

Jack: It wouldn’t make any difference. I’d pick my friend. What would you do?

Rich: Er …

Jack: You’d choose the best player, wouldn’t you?

Rich: Er … no 

Jack: I know you would. You’d pick the best player.

Rich: Maybe, I know that I should really pick my friend but …

Jack: You horrible, horrible person! It’s only a game

Rich. It’s only an imaginary game!

Rich: I know, I know but I want to win. Even if it’s in my head.

...

Rich: While you are listening this is what we want you to do.

Jack: We want you to answer four questions while you listen. 1. What is the dilemma? 2. What would Rich do? 3. What would Jack do? And number four; What would you do?

Rich: Dilemma 2

Rich: You’re a new striker for a Premier League team playing in your first match. An opposition player is on the ground injured. The referee hasn’t seen the injured player. You’ve got the ball and have a great chance to score your first ever Premier League goal. What should you do?

Jack: I’d kick the ball out of play.

Rich: You’d what? 

Jack: I’d kick the ball out of play. I’d kick it into touch so the injured player could get some treatment.

Rich: But, but … really?

Jack: It’s the right thing to do. I wouldn’t want to score in that way. I’d stop. I wouldn’t take advantage of the situation. 

Rich: But what if the player is faking it? What if he’s dived?

Jack: That’s for the referee to decide but I’d always stop if I saw someone down on the pitch.

Rich: But, what if you’re right in front of the goal ... this is your first chance to score a Premier League goal? You could check the player’s OK after you’ve scored.

Jack: To be honest it just doesn’t feel right … it feels like cheating.

Rich: It’s not cheating. You’re supposed to keep playing until the referee stops the game.

Jack: But what if the referee hasn’t seen the player down?

Rich: It won’t take him long to notice. I’d carry on. It’s up to the referee to decide. 

Jack: Wouldn’t you feel guilty?

Rich: No.

...

Rich: While you are listening this is what we want you to do.

Jack: We want you to answer four questions while you listen. 1. What is the dilemma? 2. What would Rich do? 3. What would I do? And number 4; What would you do?

Rich: Dilemma 3

Rich: You are the star player for a small club who is close to getting promoted to the Premier League for the first ever time. You have been at this club since you were seven years old. All your teammates are your friends and the fans love you. A big Premier League club want to sign you. Should you move clubs or not? 

Jack: This is a difficult one. I think I’d probably stay at the club. 

Rich: But a big Premier League club. It would be a huge increase in salary. It would set you and your family up for life. Money, house, car …

Jack: But what about the small club you’re leaving behind. They’ve trained you, looked after you and made you the player you are. I think I’d feel that I owed something to them. I’d stay for sure.

Rich: I wouldn’t.

Jack: I guessed that.

Rich: Well maybe I’d stay until the end of the season. Then I’d move. 

Language Focus 

Jack: We’ve just used lots of useful language for talking about dilemmas.

Rich: Two words that we used a lot in our role plays were would and should. They are both what are called modal verbs. A modal verb is a word that is used to add extra meaning to a verb.

Jack: Something you should do is something that is a good or the best idea to do. Something that you would do is something you think you would do in a situation that is not real or hypothetical.

Rich: In roleplay one, I asked Jack if he would choose his friend instead of a better player for his football team. He said that he would choose his friend. 

Jack: That’s what I would do if I was in that situation or had that dilemma.

Rich: The use of would or should very much depends whether the situation is real or hypothetical.

Jack: At the beginning of the podcast Rich was speaking about a real and current dilemma so he was talking about what he should do rather than what he would do.

Rich: I could ask Jack these questions: What should I do? And What would you do? The first is real because it’s my dilemma and the second is hypothetical - not real because Jack is not in that situation.

Jack: We’ve got more about the use of should and would in the activities at the bottom of this page.

Rich: And if you’re signed up for our activity week - the next lesson is all about the language of dilemmas and modal verbs.

Jack: Yes, because we used lots of other phrases too. Phrases such as: what if, what about, even if, you’re supposed to and many more we used in these hypothetical discussions. 

Task

Rich: The task this week is a discussion. We want you to give your opinions about some dilemmas in the comments section at the bottom of this page.

Jack: First, we want you to say what choice you would make in the three dilemmas we introduced in this podcast.

Rich: Do you agree with me?

Jack: Or do you agree with me?

Rich: Then we want you to think about two more football dilemmas and give your opinion. Try to use lots of modal verbs and some of the phrases we introduced in this podcast when giving your answers.

Jack: Here are the two dilemmas.

Rich: Dilemma one: You are playing an important World Cup match. It’s the 90th minute. You are defending and the ball is going to go in the net. The only way you can stop the ball is by using your hand. This will result in a penalty for the other team and a red card for you. But, it might stop the other team from winning if they miss the penalty. What should you do?

Jack: Dilemma two: You play for a football team in London. You have a young family who is very happy in London with friends and a good school. You are offered a chance to move to a bigger club in a faraway place. What should you do?

Football Phrase

Rich: Have you got a football phrase for us this week? 

Jack: Yes, I have, but first, last week’s football phrase. The phrase was to run your socks off. The phrase is a cliche and idiom that means to work very, very hard. You often hear managers say my players ran their socks off at the end of the match.

Rich: Well done to Violinka and Liubomyr from Ukraine and Linh Dreamer from Russia and anybody else who has got the right answer in the last few days! What’s this week’s football phrase, Jack?

Jack: This week’s football phrase is to *** *** **** *** ** ****. If you were listening to the podcast carefully you will have heard this phrase in one of the dilemmas earlier. It means to accidentally, or on purpose if another player is injured, kick the ball off the pitch.

Rich: Have a listen to the dilemmas again if you’re not sure about this one.

Jack: Right, that’s all we have time for this week! Don’t forget to write your answers to our questions and make a guess at our football phrase in the comments below.

Rich: And don’t forget to listen to our round-up show called ‘This Week’. And sign up for our Premier Skills English Live Lessons on the Premier Skills English homepage. Just hit the live button.

Jack: If you have enjoyed this podcast or found it useful, leave us a rating  or review and that will help other people find us. Bye for now and enjoy your football.