Premier Vocabulary is a mini-podcast for you to learn football English one word at a time. We have three different levels for you: easy, medium and hard.

This episode is easy so we’re looking at common football words and phrases; things you use and need to know to play the game.

Summary

Learn more football vocabulary with Premier Skills English. Each lesson in our Premier Vocabulary section looks at one football word or phrase. This lesson looks at the word nickname.

You can find more lessons on the side of this page.

Transcript

Rich: Hello my name’s Rich and welcome to Premier Skills English - Premier Vocabulary.

Jack: Hi there! I’m Jack. We’re here to help you with your football English. Premier Vocabulary is a mini-podcast for you to learn football English one word at a time.

Rich: We have three different levels for you: easy, medium and hard.

Jack: This episode is easy so we’re looking at common football words and phrases. Things you use and need to know to play the game.

Rich: The phrase we are looking at in this episode is nickname.

Jack: Do you have a nickname Rich?

Rich: Is Rich a nickname? My first name is actually Richard but most people call me Rich or people have called me Richie in the past, too.

Jack: Yeah, I suppose that is a nickname based on your first name. Rich is short for Richard.

Rich: When I was a school it was very common to use nicknames based on people’s surnames or family names. My surname is Moon and my nickname was Moony.

Jack: Yes, this was very common. If your surname was Smith it would be very common for your nickname to be Smithy or if your surname was Jones you would be Jonesy.

Rich: I think this is more common if your surname has just one syllable like Smith, Jones or like me, Moon. Smithy, Jonesy or Moony. Your surname is Radford, Jack. It has two syllables. What did people call you?

Jack: Einstein due to my supreme intelligence!!

Rich: So, a nickname is an informal name that can be based around someone’s real name or maybe their personality or something they do.

Jack: But it’s not only people that have nicknames. Japan’s nickname is the land of the rising sun and Chicago is known as the windy city.

Rich: Australia is also called down-under and New York’s nickname is the Big Apple.

Jack: Objects also have informal names or nicknames: a telephone is a phone, a television is a TV or a telly and a pound is a quid.

Rich: And sports teams have nicknames of course. The England team are known as the three lions, the Algerian football team are called the desert foxes and the Mexican national team is called El Tri or the tricolour.

Jack: And all of the Premier League teams have nicknames, too. We’re going to read out some imaginary football scores with the team’s nicknames. Do you know all of them?

Rich: The Gunners 3-0 The Blues, The Canaries 1-2 The Magpies, The Red Devils 4-2 The Saints, The Blades 3-2 The Toffees, The Foxes 1-1 The Villans, Wolves 2-1 The Clarets

Jack: The Eagles 0-0 The Hornets, Citizens 2-3 The Reds, The Seagulls 1-0 The Cherries, The Lilywhites 2- 1 The Irons, The Bumbles 2-2 The Mikelywikilies

Final whistle

Rich: There is the final whistle!

Jack: We’ll be back soon with more Premier Vocabulary from Premier Skills English.

Rich: Bye for now and enjoy your football.

Discuss

What is your club's nickname?

Do you have a nickname?