Speak Better English with Harry | Episode 170

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Hi there. This is Harry, and welcome to my podcast, where tried to help you with the English language introducing expressions. Jim's Fraser verbs on DH, other language in which you can make a contribution both in your working environment and also in your social and personal life. So what do I have for you today? Well, in this podcast, we're going to talk about something that everybody loves, and everybody is far as I know, loves football. So whether you're living in France or England Island, Germany, Spain, wherever it might be, football is one of those unique sports that unites cities and also divides them from time to time. So if you're lucky to love the game as much as I do on DH, hopefully you support a team a little bit better than my team. My team is Newcastle, but we all have our problems in life. So whoever your team is, well enjoy football. So these are some expressions that we can typically use aunt here when we are watching football with friends. Or perhaps we have the benefit of going to the game alive. Game is a really great experience, so let's look at some phrase and verbs related to a football match to pay off. So to pay off by literally to pay off means to pay somebody money, to go away or to stop doing something. But in football terms to pay off means something you did has a good result. So, for example, the change of position off our central midfielder to a striker paid off handsomely last weekend when he scored two goals. The purchase off that new defender will pay off. Eventually. He's young on when he settles in. He'd be a great contribution to the team gave so to pay off. Something has a benefit to gamble on something. Well, all football teams gamble on something at some time, particularly managers and they they keep or lose their jobs as a result of that. So they gamble on certain tactics in the game. They, as Marino has done in many games, heard different teams of Chelsea and Manchester United and now Spurs he what they call Parks the bus in front. That means he has a very defensive approach, so he gambles on the defensive approach and then, of course, when the team lets in a gold very early in the game. The gamble doesn't pay off, so the gamble becomes a major risks. Or to gamble on something is to take a chance that some tactic or some strategy will work. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn't next Fraser verb to brush somebody or something aside. Well, to brush something or somebody is to knock it out of the way. Yes, so if you've got something on the floor and you use a sweeping brush to sweep it away, so that's to get it out of your way. So in the football context, when a really strong defensive player or midfield player is, they're on the ball and he's moving forward on DH Thie opposition tried to tackle him. He brushes somebody or something aside with ease, meaning he's not so easy to knock off the ball. He's very strong. He stays up right on DH, gets into a very strong attacking position to brush somebody aside with ease, or he was easily brushed aside their meaning. The defensive player wasn't so well equipped to deal with the strength of the striker, and he was easily brushed aside. Next phrase verb to hit back to hit back means to try and recover quickly from mistake. So, for example, the team is set up very defensively on within the 1st 5 or six minutes. They concede on early goal, so what they will try to do is hit back immediately. Try and get that equalising goal, tried to get on the ball, get more possession on, put themselves into a stronger position. So the home team lost a goal very early in the game after four or five minutes. But within three minutes they hit back immediately with a very good goal. Following a corner kick on DH, the striker put the ball into the back of the net on DH. The teams were back on level terms one each. Okay, so to hit back Gates or the manager can hit back at criticism from the press. So these days the managers have to sit in front of the cameras before and after the games. They have to answer questions what the tax is going to be, and then they have to defend their tactics after the game. So some managers get a little bit angry on they hit back at what they consider to be stupid questions from the press to hit back means to retaliate, rain off. While this is one of the unfortunate situations that doesn't happen so much now as it used to, because the football stadia that they play in our really well built the grounds, meaning the plane surfaces very well irrigated so that the surface doesn't get so wet that the pitch of becomes waterlogged full of water. S o. You rarely have games rained off. But if there's a massive deluge downpour of water for several days or hours before the game, the referee might look at the pitch to see that the ball is floating on water and it is impossible to play the game. So the game is rained off, meaning cancelled, postponed or called off to be rained off to be postponed until another day to ease off. What ease off means to take your foot off the accelerator. So if you're driving a car and you want to go a little bit slower, you ease off the foot on the accelerator. You don't press it so hard, so the car slows down on exactly the same in football. So your team is winning two or three nil on the game is a little bit easier than they anticipated. So to avoid any risk of injury or tiredness, the team ease off so they start passing the ball around a little bit more. They don't move forward in the same way as they did before. They're not attacking. They're quite comfortable to sit back on DH. You just played easily at the back without exerting themselves too much, so they ease off. Of course, in football it's very dangerous position to be in because if your two nil up and you ease off on the other team, get a goal than the momentum is with them. And of course, the result is that the team come back and the equalise and then you have a struggle. So you have to be careful whether you ease off when you're two nil up, three nil up or whatever. Okay. So easy enough is not always the right tactic, but it's understandable why people will do it. And then, of course, if if you ease off on the other team, get that goal, then you have what we call a fight back. So this is the next phrase a verb, a fight back is when a team sees a little bit of opportunity, they get perhaps a very fortunate goal. Maybe they get a penalty or deflection or something that they weren't expecting on DH. Therefore, instead of being two nil down with 20 minutes to go there now to one down with 15 minutes to go on DH, they are thinking, Yeah, we possibly could get another goal here. So the fight back begins. And so when the fight begins, the momentum switches very quickly on the team that are 21 down. Seeing opportunity on who knows, they might get that equaliser. Or indeed, they might sneak your snatch a late winner on instead of losing to know they win three goals to two. Okay, not unnatural. Sometimes it happens and you never know, and I've seen it happen, even with my team. So there's always an opportunity. So Fraser verbs to pay off to gamble on something, brushed somebody or something aside, hit back, rain off, ease off on DH fightback. Okay, well, hopefully enjoyed those Fraser verbs connected with football, and if you're watching football this weekend, then I hope your team wins Whoever that may be on DH. You can get on to the next game in the season. Okay, well, as always. Thanks for listening. If you want to contact me, you can do so. Www dot English lesson via Skype That come always happy to hear from you was welcome. Any contributions that you wish to make? Okay, well, thanks for listening and join me again soon.