The Big Kick-Off - 16/17 ep.1

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: It’s finally here Jack. After waiting nearly 3 months the new Premier League season kicks off this weekend! I can’t wait!

Jack: Yes, it’s very exciting and this week we’re going to talk all about the new season in the Premier League.  As always, we’ll have some new vocabulary for you to learn and the language focus is on the phrases that mean ‘would like’.

Rich: We’ll also have our pronunciation, fantasy football and football phrase sections for you.

Jack: Yes, we will have all of that and Rich are you going to start your Premier League predictions again? I think this season, we’ll see how well you do. We’ll keep a table on the page to show everybody what a great predictor you are!

Rich: That sounds great. I can’t wait! Maybe we should both do it?

Jack: Mmmm, yes maybe.

Rich: Well done to Aragorn1986 from Montenegro who was the first to complete our third pre-season course last week. Well done to the rest of you who completed it, too. We hope that you found it useful.

Jack: If you haven’t started the course, don’t worry. Just go to the fans section at the top of the page and click on courses. You will find all the courses that are available on Premier Skills English.

Rich: We will have some more courses for you during the season, so keep an eye out for them!

Social

Rich: What’s been happening on the website this week, Jack?

Jack: We’ve got some more advanced vocabulary on the website with a page about goalkeepers and a page about defenders.

Rich: Yes, some of it’s quite difficult but I love the phrase ‘to park the bus’.

Jack: If you want to check out these pages, you will find them in pre-season course 3.

Latest News

Jack: What’s been happening in the Premier League this week, Rich?

Rich: The Premier League has been getting ready for the big kick off on Saturday.

Jack: I see Liverpool warmed up with a good result.

Rich: Yes, they beat Barcelona 4-0!! An unbelievable result.

Jack: I’m sure you could talk about it for hours. But don’t!

Rich: OK, Manchester Utd won the Community Shield. They beat Leicester 2-1. Zlatan Ibrahimovic got the winner.

Jack: A good start for Zlatan and Jose Mourinho.

Rich: Yes, he dedicated the trophy to Louis Van Gaal - the ex-Man Utd manager, which was nice.

Jack: There have been more new transfers, too.

Rich: Yes, the record for most expensive player has been broken. Manchester United have signed French midfielder Paul Pogba from Juventus for a record fee.

Jack: It’s been reported that the transfer is the most expensive in the history of football transfers. Paul Pogba used to play for Manchester United before his move to Italy.

Rich: When he got back to Manchester, he said it was like he was coming home from holiday. I think he must have missed the fine British weather.

Jack: Hmmm, yes. He was probably tired of all that sunshine and Italian food. In other transfer news, Manchester City have bought Leroy Sane from Schalke in Germany and Swansea City have bought the Spanish striker, Fernando Llorente, from Seville.

Rich: Yes, there will be more transfers after the season starts, too. The transfer deadline is not until the end of this month.

Language Focus

Jack: So, the season is about to start let’s talk a bit about what we would like to see this season.

Rich: It would be brilliant if Liverpool won the Premier League.

Jack: Well, it would be great for you and Liverpool fans. I, obviously, think it would be great if Arsenal won the Premier League. Let’s think of some things that everybody would like to see.

Rich: Everybody loves an underdog. Leicester City was an amazing story last season. Who would you like to see surprise the Premier League this season?

Jack: Middlesbrough, Burnley and Hull have just been promoted. Wouldn’t it be great if Burnley could do the same as Leicester last season?

Rich: It would be amazing but I can’t see the same thing happening again. But you never know!

Jack: Wouldn’t it be brilliant to see a young player who nobody knows do well?

Rich: Yes, it’s great to have well-known players like Ibrahimovic in the Premier League but there’s something special when a new young player does well. Maybe Manchester Utd’s Marcus Rashford will score more goals than Ibrahimovic?

Jack: That would surprise me! I know that he’s been playing in the Premier League for a few seasons now but I think it would be great to see Everton’s Romelu Lukaku as top scorer this season.

Rich: He’s still only 23. I would like to see more of Sheyi Ojo at Liverpool. I think he’s a very exciting player and he’s only 19. Ojo is a player to keep an eye on.

Jack: And I would like to see Arsenal’s Hector Bellerin turning into a world class defender. He’s already brilliant but I think he can get even better. He’s just 20 years old.

Rich: And personally, I would love to visit the Olympic Stadium which is West Ham’s new ground.

Jack: Yes, it will be a great experience for Hammers fans and the away fans, too. Anything else?

Rich: Well, it would be wonderful if there were fewer arguments between players and referees this season.

Jack: What do you mean?

Rich: You know, when players run up to the referee and shout in his face. Showing disrespect to the referee.

Jack: I think everybody would like to see this less.

Rich: Well, the rules about talking to referees are a lot stronger this season. We might see a few yellow and red cards at the beginning of the season but overall I think we will see less of this type of thing.

Jack: That would be triffic.

Rich: We’ve just been talking about things that we would like to see in the Premier League and we used the phrase ‘would like’ a lot.

Jack: But we often changed the phrase a little bit because if we say would, would like, would like all the time it becomes very boring.

Rich: We used three forms of ‘would like’.

Jack: The simplest is would like plus the infinitive: I would like to see Bellerin turn into a world class defender.

Rich: You can also say: I would like Liverpool to win the Premier League.

Jack: Another form was a conditional statement. Rich said: It would be brilliant if Liverpool won the Premier League. This is a really common form. Notice that the verb win is the past form in the if clause.

Rich: The third form we used was a question, but it’s not really a question. The meaning is more like a sentence, but it’s a bit like a question tag - it’s an invitation to agree with us. So Jack said: Wouldn’t it be brilliant to see a young player who nobody knows do well?

Jack: When you’ve finished listening to the podcast, have a look at the activities and explanations of these expressions on this page.

Pronunciation

Jack: Each week we’re going to help you with your pronunciation. Sometimes we will look at individual sounds, sometimes at words and phrases and sometimes linking sentences together.

Rich: This week, we’re going to carry on where we finished last week and talk about connected speech. Whenever you hear or use a common phrase in English, the grammar words are likely to be weak - sometimes, they seem to disappear completely.

Jack: In English, what you say is not the same as what you read. English speakers drop or lose lots of sounds when they speak this can make it difficult when listening to people. Let’s look at an example with ‘would’ which Rich used earlier.

Rich: I think it’d be great to see Everton’s Romelu Lukaku as top striker.

Jack: Rich says ‘it’d be great to see’ he doesn’t say ‘it would be great to see’. I’m going to try to say this really slowly and then again faster and again faster till it’s a natural speed.

It ud be

It ud be

It ud be

/ɪtədbɪ/

/ɪʔədbɪ/

/ɪʔədbɪ/

The word ‘would’ almost completely disappears.

Rich: It’s really tricky for learners. There are more examples. I said ‘I’d love to visit the Olympic Stadium’ I didn’t say ‘I would love to visit the Olympic stadium’.

/ədlʌvtə/

/ədlʌvtə/

/ədlʌvtə/

Jack: But, sometimes we use the full form because we want to emphasise that point. Earlier, I said ‘that would surprise me!’

Rich: We would like you to listen to the previous section of the podcast again. There are lots of examples of ‘would’. Listen and think if we are using the short form or the full form of ‘would’.

Jack: When you’ve finished, take a look at the transcript of the podcast at the bottom of this page to check.

Club of the Week

Jack: This week’s club of the week is Arsenal.

Rich: Do you think your team is going to do well, this season?

Jack: Of course, we’ve finished in the top 4 for the last 20 years and I think we’ll do well again this season.

Rich: You’re confident? You haven't bought many players.

Jack: I think that will help us. All the players know each other and other teams will take some time to gel.

Rich: Yes, when a team has a few new players it can take time for them to gel or play together like a team.

Jack: I see that you’ve predicted Arsenal to come 6th on the website. I don’t think this will ever happen and I think we will be Champions this season.

Rich: If you agree with Jack or if you agree with me, let us know on the Arsenal club page.

Football Phrase

Rich: Last week’s football phrase was testimonial match. A testimonial match is a match that is played to show admiration for a specific player and to thank him for staying with a club for a long time. A testimonial match is usually played after a player is with a club for 10 years or more.

Jack: Well done to Alex from Ukraine, Kwesimanifest from Ghana, Abdullah Hussein from Egypt, AssemJuve from Palestine and Hassan_Raja from Pakistan. All of you got the correct answer!

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

Jack: This week’s football word is *******. A ******* is something you buy that is good value and is bought for less than it’s usual price. In football, we can say a bargain is a player who didn’t cost a lot of money but plays very well for his team. Clubs are looking for ******** in the transfer market.

Rich: And we were looking for some ******** for our Fantasy Football team, let’s talk about that now.

Fantasy Football

Jack: Thanks to you we now have our Fantasy Football team on Premier Skills English. We’ve got all 15 players in our squad, check out our fantasy football section to get involved. Go to the fans section at the top of this page and you will find it in there!

Rich: We now need to pick the team for our first match this Saturday! Help us choose the starting eleven, our captain and formation in this week’s Fantasy Football section.

Jack: Remember to enter your own team in our Premier Skills League on the Premier League website, too! The Private League password that you need is at the bottom of this page and our fantasy football pages.

Prediction

Jack: So, the first matches are this weekend. Which match are you going to choose to make your first prediction of the new season, Rich?

Rich: I think you probably know, Jack. My team, Liverpool, play your team, Arsenal, on Sunday and I think we’re going to win. I think under Jurgen Klopp Liverpool are looking fresh and dynamic and Arsenal are looking tired and boring. I’m going for a 3-0 win to Liverpool.

Jack: Rich, I think you’re letting your heart rule your head. I’m going to be more realistic and go for a 4-0 win to Arsenal.

Rich: We’ll see. Let’s see who has the best predictions throughout the season. Me, you or the Premier Skills English podcast listeners!

Jack: I don’t think it will be me or you!

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

Jack: Don’t forget to write your answers to our questions the football phrase and your predictions in the comments below. And remember to take a look at our Fantasy Football section and join the discussions!

Rich: Bye for now and enjoy your football!