Understanding Grammar: Adverbs (1)

Understanding Grammar: Adverbs 1 
Introduction

Jack: Hello my name’s Jack
 
Rowan: My name’s Rowan

Rich: and I’m Rich 

Rowan: And welcome to this week’s Premier Skills English podcast.

Jack: In the Premier Skills English podcast, we talk about football and help you with your English. 

Rowan: Don’t forget you can find the transcript for all our podcasts on the Premier Skills English website.

Rich: In this week’s roleplay Rowan is in trouble with her football coach and I’m in trouble with Rowan

Jack: Yes, Rowan has been late for training quite a lot recently and she really needs to get to training on time if she’s not going to get fired.

Rich: So I offer to pick her up and drive her to training but the problem is I’m late and then we have a few problems on the road.

Jack: Will Rowan get to training on time? Will her coach give her the boot? Have a listen to the roleplay a little later to find out.

Rowan: This week we’re using our roleplay to focus on grammar and more specifically we’re going to look at adverbs.

Jack: Adverbs are words we mainly use to give more information about verbs but we can also use them to give more information about adjectives or even other adverbs.

Rich: We use them to describe how someone does something or how something happens.

Jack:  In this week’s podcast we’re going to focus on the position of adverbs - where you put them in a sentence - and how this position changes when we use different verbs and verb forms.

Rowan: Your task this week is to tell us how you usually get to work, university or a football stadium in your city and a problem you’ve once had on the way.

Jack: If you are listening to us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or any other podcast platform, you should also check out our website.

Rowan: On the Premier Skills English website you’ll also find the transcript, examples and activities to help you understand the language, and a task for you to complete.

Rich: You’ll also find a community of friendly listeners to interact with, in our comments section.
 
Jack: And that includes us - we’re always around to answer questions and join in the discussions.

Rowan: But if you listen on Apple Podcasts you can always write answers to our questions or any other comments in the review section.

Rich: Before we do the roleplay let’s look back at last week’s football phrase.

Last week’s Football Phrase 

Jack: If you didn’t hear our football phrase last week we’re going to give you one more chance to guess now. 

Rich: If you’re not sure what the football phrase is we’ll give you the correct answer at the end of the show when we give you a new football phrase. 

Rowan: Last week’s football phrase was * ********. * ******** is a dribbling technique which involves stepping over the ball with one or both legs in order to confuse an opponent. It’s a tactic of technical players and fast wingers - Cristiano Ronaldo does them a lot.

Jack: Max Alex from Vietnam was the first to get the right answer last week. Well done to you Max Alex and thanks for your positive comments about the podcast.

Rich: Well done as well to Marco Zapien from Mexico, Daniel Baron1503 and Jhon Baron-Oliveres from Colombia, WSanta from Argentina, MoBeckham from Turkey, Hayato from Japan, Emmanuel from France, Liubomyr from Ukraine and Robert Tavares from Brazil. All of you got the right answer.

Rowan: Last week we gave you the opportunity to join the Premier Skills English Fantasy Football League.

Jack: Thanks to one of our listeners - Mo Beckham from Turkey for helping us set this up. It’s a good idea to have a fantasy Premier League and if you play Fantasy Football on the Premier League website it’s very easy to join the Premier Skills English League.

Rich: The league starts on Matchday 2 so it’s not too late. The all-important league code you need to join is: n4rwjn. I’ll repeat that again: n4rwjn

Rowan: We’ve put all the details on the page for this podcast on the Premier Skills English website.

Introduction to Roleplay

Jack: As we said earlier, in this week’s roleplay, Rowan is in trouble with her football coach and Rich is in trouble with Rowan.

Rich: Rowan has been late for training quite a lot recently and she really needs to get there on time if she’s not going to get fired.

Rowan: Rich offers to pick me up and drive me to training but he’s late and then we have a few problems on the road.

Jack: During the roleplay we use lots of adverbs of frequency which we will focus on in our language focus after the roleplay. 

Rich: While you listen we have a question we want you to answer:

Rowan: What problems do we have on the way to training?

Roleplay

Rowan: Come on, Rich. I can’t be late for training again. He’ll kill me.

Rich: Don’t just stand there! Let’s go. We’re late.

Rowan: We’re late? You’re late! What’s kept you Mr Punctuality? Hold on. I’ve forgotten my boots.

Rich: I could have had another cup of coffee. No wonder you’re normally late. I’ll just stick on the radio.

Rowan: Let’s go! 

Rowan: What took you so long then?

Rich: Well, usually I go on the ring road. I got a bit lost on the way..

Rowan: You should always go on the ring road. It’s not as if you’ve hardly ever been here.

Rich: I know. I know.

Rowan: And today of all days you choose to go a different way and get lost. Sometimes I just don’t understand people.

Rich: We can still make it. Anyway, I wasn’t lost, I just wasn’t going the right way. I hardly ever take the car in the morning. 

Rowan: How do you usually get to work?

Rich: I get public transport to work generally so I forgot there would be rush hour.

Rowan: I’m not sure if that’s much of an excuse. You’re always getting lost. 

Rich: What do you mean?

Rowan: Can’t you remember when you ended up in Bristol when you wanted to go to Birmingham? Aston Villa play in Birmingham.

Rich: I wasn’t lost. I never get lost.  I just missed my stop on the train. Fell asleep. Had to watch the match on the telly.

Rowan: What’s this? The road’s blocked. The road’s never blocked. Have you ever seen this road blocked? Why today?

Rich: Roadworks. 

Rowan: No kidding, Sherlock. What are we going to do?

Rich: Wait.

Rowan: A detour. There’s got to be another way around. Let’s turn off here. You must have been through this village occasionally.

Rich: We can get off the ring road but we run the risk of …

Rowan: Do it.

Rich: But there’s often ...

A few minutes later ...

Rowan: What the?

Rich: Sheep. Lots of sheep.

Rowan: I can see that. But what are they doing here?

Rich: Eating grass probably. I did try to say, I’ve been through here a few times. There’s normally sheep and cows about.

Rowan: Sheep and cows about? Why can’t these people keep them in the field? Sometimes I don’t understand people.

Rich: We should be at training in about five minutes. We won’t be that late.

Rowan: Half an hour late. I’m in for the hairdryer treatment.

Rich: The hairdryer treatment. I thought you were going to training, not to get your hair done.

Rowan: The hairdryer treatment. It’s when the coach shouts a lot. He usually goes a bit red in the face as well. It’s quite funny sometimes but we try not to laugh.

Rich: Ah, well, we don’t want that. Look, we're here. Shall I wait?

Rowan: No, I'll be alright. I’ll face the music.

Jack: Hey, Rowan. Late again I see.

Rowan: Yeah, yeah. Where’s the coach?

Jack: You’re safe. He’s stuck in traffic.

Language Focus: Adverbs

Jack: Before we talk about some of the language let’s look at the answers to the question we asked. The question was: What problems do Rich and Rowan have on the way to training?

Rowan: Well, the first problem was that Rich was late, then the road was blocked because of some roadworks and then when we took a detour we got blocked by a flock of sheep.

Jack: Rowan was late for training but she got away with it because the coach was even later than she was.

Rich: In the roleplay, we used quite a lot of adverbs of frequency. Adverbs of frequency are words that tell us how often something happens - words like never, sometimes and always.

Jack: We can put the adverbs of frequency we used in the roleplay in order of how often something happens with always at the top and never at the bottom.

Rich: We use always to talk about something we do all the time and never to talk about things we don’t do at all.

Jack: Other adverbs of frequency are less precise but we can still put them in order more or less.

Rich: It might be a good idea to get some paper and a pen for this exercise. 

Rowan: We want you to listen to nine sentences, write down the adverb of frequency you hear and then try to put them in the correct order. 

Jack: Are you ready?

Rich: Sentence one: I occasionally watch three live matches in one day.

Jack: Sentence two: Aston Villa rarely win away from home.

Rowan: Sentence three: I always wear my Fulham shirt when I go to the match.

Rich: Sentence four: Arsenal have never played outside the top flight of English football.

Jack: Sentence five: Referees sometimes make mistakes.

Rowan: Sentence six: Liverpool usually win at home.

Rich: Sentence seven: Commentators often pronounce player names incorrectly.

Jack: Sentence eight: I normally have a beer when watching the match.

Rowan: Sentence nine: Goalkeepers hardly ever score.

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Rich: Did you write down all the adverbs? The nine adverbs you should have written down are occasionally, rarely, always, never, sometimes, usually, often, normally and hardly ever.

Jack: Now listen to the sentences again, this time in the order according to the adverb of frequency used.

Rich: Arsenal have never played outside the top flight of English football.

Jack: Goalkeepers hardly ever score.

Rowan: Aston Villa rarely win away from home.

Rich: I occasionally watch three live matches in one day.

Jack: Referees sometimes make mistakes.

Rowan: Commentators often pronounce player names incorrectly.

Rich: I normally have a beer when watching the match.

Jack: Liverpool usually win at home.

Rowan: I always wear my Fulham shirt when I go to the match.

Rich: Did you get the same order?

Jack: Remember though that this is a general rule. Some people may feel that often, normally and usually are the same for example.

Rowan: A quick note on the word often. Some people pronounce often with a ‘t’ - ‘often’ and others don’t pronounce the ‘t’ - ‘often’.

Rich: Let’s look at how we use adverbs of frequency in a bit more detail.

Language Focus: Positioning of Adverbs

Rich: Like all adverbs - adverbs of frequency can be used to give more information about verbs and adjectives. Listen to these examples:

Rowan: I sometimes eat fish for dinner.

Rowan: I’m always late for work.

Jack: In the first sentence, the adverb of frequency sometimes is giving more information about the verb eat.

Rich: In the second sentence, the adverb of frequency always is giving more information about the adjective late.

Jack: You might have noticed that in the first example and in all the examples in the previous section the adverb of frequency was placed after the subject but before the main verb.

Rowan: I sometimes eat fish. Aston Villa rarely win away. Goalkeepers hardly ever score.

Rich: This is where we put the adverb most often but there are some exceptions and other possibilities.

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Jack: When we are describing something when we’re using an adjective and that’s the main meaning of the statement, we place the adverb before the adjective. In these statements, the adverbs of frequency are placed after the verb ‘to be’.

Rowan: Football fans are rarely happy when their team lose. I’m always annoyed when the other team score.

Rich: As you can see from these examples the adverb of frequency is placed after the verb ‘to be’. 

Jack: Another thing to remember is when we use auxiliary and modal verbs such as have, will, must, might, could, or would the adverb of frequency is usually placed between these verbs and the main verb. Listen to this example:

Rowan: Tottenham have never won the Premier League. 

Rich: And in the roleplay, Rowan said: You should always go on the ring road and this road’s never blocked.

Jack: We’ve been talking about where adverbs of frequency are usually placed but we can also use some adverbs of frequency at the beginning and at the end of a sentence.

Rowan: Some adverbs of frequency that can do this are: usually, sometimes, normally, occasionally, often, and frequently.

Rich: If they appear at the beginning, they are usually (but not always) followed by a comma. Here are some examples:

Jack: Usually, I’d be off to the match now but no fans are allowed in.

Rowan: I visit my parents normally but they come to me sometimes.

Rich: Other adverbs are rarely moved to the beginning or end of a sentence unless for special emphasis or in literature.

Jack: Never was I so excited about a football match.

Rowan: Rarely do you see a player of such quality.

Jack: If you want to learn more about the language we’ve used in this podcast we have more exercises on the lesson page on the Premier Skills English website.

Rich: Another idea is to listen to the roleplay section again - this time with the transcript - and see how we use lots of adverbs of frequency.

TASK

Rich: In this week’s task, we want you to tell us how you get to work, the place where you study or the football stadium in your city.

Rowan: Tell us the way or how you usually get there and tell us what you often see or do on the way.

Jack: Do you always go this way? Do you ever see or do anything differently? Have you ever had any problems on the way?

Rich: Try to use some of the adverbs we looked at in this podcast and think about where you can place them in the sentence.

Rowan: We’ll let you know in the comments section if the adverbs are in the right place or not. 

Jack: If you’ve got any questions about how to use adverbs you can write these in the comments section, too.

Football Phrase

Rowan: Have you got a football phrase for us, Rich?

Rich: I have. This week’s football phrase is a long one. The phrase is to **** ** *** other team’s ****. This phrase is used when one team has nearly all the possession and all the territorial advantage. The game is almost entirely played in one half of the pitch. The keyword is what you do when you go on holiday with a tent. Manchester City were ****** ** *** Aston Villa **** for the whole match. To get the phrase right you need to think about what the team are doing and where they are doing it.

Jack: That’s a pretty difficult one. Let’s see who can get it right. If you are still wondering what the answer was to last week’s football phrase it was a stepover.

Rowan: 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. If you get it right, we’ll announce your name on next week’s show. 

Rich: If you have a question for us about football or English you can email us at premierskills@britishcouncil.org

Jack: or you can leave your questions and comments on the website in the comments section or on our Facebook page or Twitter feed

Rowan: or you could give us a rating and a fantastic review on Apple Podcasts.

Rich: Bye for now and enjoy your football!