Word Building - Podcast 57

Welcome

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 more about what’s happened at Euro 2016, the Copa America Final and the language focus is word building. We are also going to remind you about our latest Euro 2016 competition.

Jack: Yes, you still have a chance to win a new Premier League shirt for the start of the Premier League season. All you have to do is say which Premier League player you think will score the most goals at Euro 2016.

Rich: You can either write your answer in the comments section at the bottom of the page on the Premier Skills English website or click next to the player who you think will score the most goals in the vote on the same page. 

Jack: But remember, you have to be registered to win the prize. If you’re not registered you are anonymous - we don’t know who you are!

Rich: We now have the result of our first Euro 2016 competition. The competition was to name the group that would have most goals by Premier League players. The answer was group B which included England, Wales, Slovakia and Russia.

Jack: There were Premier League goals in all of the groups apart from group D so it was very close. We had lots of correct entries so we chose a winner from the correct entries at random and congratulations to Liubomyr from Ukraine.

Rich: We will be in contact with you this week about how we’ll get your prize to you.

Social segment

Jack: Right, what’s been happening on the website this week?

Rich: We have a new player article for you to read - it’s all about Dimitri Payet, West Ham’s attacking midfielder. He’s been doing really well at Euro 2016.

Jack: Yes, he’s been playing really well for France and scored 2 goals. He might win our competition.

Rich: Yes, he’s got a good chance. France are in the quarter-finals too, after coming from behind to beat Ireland.

Jack: Yes, a good result for the French and not much luck for the Irish.

Rich: We’ve had quite a few comments on our visiting Leicester article. It seems that people are much more interested in visiting the city now the football club are Premier League champions.

Jack: It’s sometimes surprising what you can find in cities outside the capital. Kwesimanifest from Ghana was surprised that you can find the National Space Centre in Leicester and Alex from Ukraine thought it was amazing that the remains of King Richard III were found in a car park in Leicester over 500 years after he died.

Rich: London is a great place to visit but there are lots of things to see and do in the rest of the country, too.

Language Focus / Latest News

Jack: What’s been happening in the world of football this week, Rich?

Rich: Well, Chile have won the Copa America. In the final last year, Chile beat Argentina in a penalty shootout after a 0-0 draw and on Sunday they beat Argentina in a penalty shootout after a 0-0 draw.

Jack: Bad news for Argentina’s Premier League players.

Rich: Yes, but great news for Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez and Chile. And after the match there was more news, Lionel Messi, who missed one of the penalties for Argentina, retired from international football.

Jack: That is big news. I missed the match. It kicked off at 2 ‘o'clock in the morning in the UK. I have been watching Euro 2016 though. 

Rich: Me too. There have been some great matches. My favourite was Hungary against Portugal in a three-all thriller. We now know the quarter finalists at Euro 2016. The quarter finals have been finalised.

Jack: Yes, the group stages are over and the last-16 was completed yesterday.

Rich: The quarter finalists are Poland, Portugal, Wales, Belgium, Germany, France, Italy and Iceland.

Jack: There are some strong teams there. So, we use the words quarter-finalist and quarter-final. Quarter-finalist describes a person, or in this case a team, that is taking part in the quarter final match.

Rich: So, we have quarter-finalists, semi-finalists and finalists. These are people or teams taking part in the quarter-final, semi-final or final. So, the quarter-final is the match and a quarter-finalist is the person or team that is playing in the quarter-final.  

Jack: Yes, both quarter-finalist and quarter-final are nouns. When you learn a word it can be very useful to find out and learn different parts of speech for that word. This is often called word building. You learn the noun but it’s useful to know the verb or the adjective, too.

Rich: International English exams often test your knowledge of this in grammar and vocabulary papers but it can be useful to do word building exercises to expand your vocabulary more generally, too. 

Jack: Let’s look at an example. I’m going to use the word final in the different forms.  I’m going to use the word as a noun, an adverb and an adjective. Try to listen for them all.

Finally, we make it to the final of Euro 2016. The finalists are ready and waiting. After two hard fought semi-finals we’ve finally made it to the final match of the competition at the Stade de France in Paris. 

Rich: Right, we’ve got some word building exercises and more examples on the podcast page. Have a go at the exercises and let us know if you have any questions or problems.

Football Phrase

Rich: Right, last week’s football phrase was to book a place. It means to reserve a place or to guarantee something. Germany booked a place in the next round of Euro 2016 after beating Slovakia 3-0. You can also book a place or a seat on airplane or maybe book a table at a restaurant.

Jack: Well done to HassanRaja447 from Pakistan and Haydi from Tunisia and thanks again to Kwesimanifest from Ghana for suggesting last week's football phrase. 

Rich: What’s this week’s football phrase, Jack?

Jack: This week’s football phrase is ******* ********. When a cup competition finishes as a draw after 90 minutes, the teams play extra-time. If the two teams are still tied after extra-time, there is a ******* ********. We’ve already seen one ******* ********  at Euro 2016, when Poland knocked out Switzerland to reach the quarter-finals. If you were listening to the podcast carefully, you might have heard Rich use this phrase when talking about the Copa America final. 

Rich: I hope we don’t see many more of these. It’s a horrible way to lose!

Strange but true

Rich: Before we finish, I’ve got a strange football story for you.

Jack: Go on then I’m all ears. 

Rich: I read recently about a football match in Denmark that finished very strangely.

Jack: Tell me more.

Rich: Well, the match was between Norager and Ebeltoft and Norager were winning 4-3 with just a few seconds to go and then the referee blew the final whistle.

Jack: There’s nothing strange there.

Rich: No, but nobody heard the whistle. The referee’s false teeth had fallen out and when he blew the whistle no noise came out.

Jack: How funny!

Rich: And while he was looking for his teeth, Ebeltoft scored an equaliser to make it 4-4. 

Jack: So, it finished as a draw?

Rich: Actually no. The ref disallowed the goal and blew the final whistle with his false teeth back in his mouth!

Jack: I never knew you couldn’t blow a whistle without teeth!

Rich: Right, that’s all we have time for today!

Jack: Don’t forget to write your answers to our questions, football phrase and competition in the comments below.

Rich: Bye for now and enjoy your football!