
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 medium so we’re looking at football words and phrases you need to describe what’s happening on the pitch or words and phrases fans and commentators on TV might use. There are lots of phrasal verbs to learn at this level.
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 to knock out.
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 medium so we’re looking at football words and phrases you need to describe what’s happening on the pitch or words and phrases fans and commentators on TV might use. There will be lots of phrasal verbs to learn at this level.
Rich: The phrase we are looking at in this episode is knock out. Have a listen to this:
Jack: I love knockout matches.
Rich: I don’t, I think league matches are better. Anyone can knock out anyone else in a cup match. The league is a much better competition.
Jack: Here we are using knockout as an adjective and as a phrasal verb.
Rich: To knock a team out of a competition means to eliminate them from the competition. Liverpool knocked Barcelona out of the Champions League last season. Liverpool continued to the final and Barcelona went home.
Jack: We can use it as an adjective, too. We often speak about knockout matches or the knockout rounds or stages of a competition.
Rich: The knockout stages are what comes after the group stages of a competition. In the knockout stages, the winners go to the next round or stage and the losers are eliminated.
Jack: The phrasal verb knock out has a more general meaning.
Rich: It means to cause someone to become unconscious. A footballer could be knocked out by an accidental elbow from an opponent or even a ball that hits him or her in the face.
Jack: We are knocked out by something. This could be an elbow, a football, a boxer’s punch or even alcohol and drugs.
Rich: The aim of a boxing match is to knock each other out. When the referee in a boxing match counts to ten the fight stops and the fighter that is standing has won by knockout.
Jack: We might describe the final punch in a boxing match as the knockout blow. The punch that finally won the fight.
Rich: We can use this phrase knockout blow in other contexts. It is used to describe the final action or event that caused something to fail. Listen to these examples:
Jack: The injury was a knockout blow to his hopes of playing in the World Cup.
Rich: The economic crisis delivered a knockout blow to the company’s finances and it soon went bankrupt.
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
- Do you prefer watching knockout matches or league matches?
- Can you remember a match when a small team knocked out a much bigger team?
Write your answers in the comments section below.
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