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 hard so we’re looking at more difficult football phrases and idioms.

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 phrase the top flight.

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.

Rich: Remember you can find transcripts for all of our podcasts on the Premier Skills English website.

Jack: 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 hard so we’re looking at more difficult football phrases and idioms. These phrases can be used to talk about football but are also useful when talking about other topics.

Rich: The phrase we are looking at in this episode is: the top flight.

Jack: Top flight is used to describe something that is of the highest quality or level and doesn’t have anything to do with flying or aeroplanes.

Rich: We can talk about top-flight scientists, top-flight universities, top-flight engineers and we mean scientists, universities, and engineers of the highest level or quality.

Jack: We also use top flight to talk a lot about football and sport more generally.

Rich: Top-flight football or the top flight.

Jack: The top flight is used to describe the top level or division in professional sport.

Rich: In English football there are four fully professional divisions: League Two, League One, the Championship and the Premier League.

Jack: The Premier League is the highest level or top level so is often called the top flight or the top flight of English football.

Rich: We often use the phrase in the top flight.

Jack: Leeds United are back in the top flight this season after 16 years in the Championship.

Rich: Bournemouth were relegated last season after five seasons in the top flight.

Jack: Top-flight can also be used as an adjective.

Rich: When we use top-flight as an adjective we usually join the two words together with a hyphen.

Jack: We can say that Alex Ferguson was a top-flight manager for 27 years.

Rich: We can say that Sheffield United, West Ham United and Newcastle United are all top-flight football teams.

Jack: The top flight is not only used to describe the Premier League. The top flight in Spain is called La Liga and the top flight in Germany is called the Bundesliga.

Rich: What’s the top flight called in your country?

Jack: There is the final whistle!

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

Jack: Bye for now and enjoy your football.

Discuss

What is the top flight called in your country?

Fantasy Football

Have you ever played fantasy football? For the 2020/21 Fantasy Premier League season, you can join our mini-league "Premier Skills English" on the Premier League's official fantasy football game.

Joining the league couldn't be easier and it's free. Simply use the link below and you'll be added automatically after you've entered the game.

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League Code: n4rwjn

Looking forward to playing against you this season!