The Olympic Games have started in London, England. Most Vietnamese are very interested in sports and I’m sure they’ll be watching some events in the coffee shops across the country over the next 17 days!
But how do you talk about sports with your English-speaking friends? Here are a few tips that you might find useful to help you understand what they say on the television, and when you’d like to talk to your friends.
The Olympics use much the same language as general sports. There are team sports and Individual (one person) sports. You will hear familiar words like Competition, which most Vietnamese understand well, but athletes (aht-leets), the people in the sports, compete with or compete against each other. To compete against / with somebody in / for something đua tranh, ganh đua, cạnh tranh.
Everyone competes to win. No-one wants to lose.
Thắng / thua 3 – 1 To win/lose by 3 goals to 1
Some sports have categories or divisions – different groups in the one sport based on how heavy or big you are or different styles of similar sports: running, for example, has sprints and relays.
But you can always start talking in a very easy way.
|
Who is your favorite team...? |
Why? |
You can ask about what you see on TV…
| Who is playing tonight? |
I don't know. It’s Spain vs Italy (versus) [ver/ziss] (tiếng Latin) (viết tắt) v, vs chống, chống lại, đấu với (nhất là trong thi đấu thể thao) Or… It’s Spain against Italy |
| Who do you think will win tonight? |
I think England will beat Germany |
Because so many athletes from around the world are competing, there are lots of races or competitions to decide who goes on to the next round, meaning the next race or competition – this is like a semi-final from football.
In some competitions, athletes get points – to score points: ghi điểm
When athletes finally win the game or sport, the final score is also called the result. As they compete and continue to win, these points become their individual or team score, or country medal tally. A tally is a list of things that you count – so the medal tally is how many medals, gold, silver and bronze, each country has won.
So you can ask about the result…
| Who won the game last night? Do you know the result? Do you know the result of the Italy/Spain game? |
The score was…( tỷ số) Germany 10, Spain 0 It was a ‘draw’ (no-one won) Spain2, Italy 2 It was a ‘tie’ (the scores are the same) (we say the winning score first, then the losing score second) |
Maybe you missed or didn’t see the game but you want to ask about it…
| How was the game last night? | It was fantastic…! |
| Who won? Do you know the result? |
It was a draw/tie. Spain won 2 – nil. (nill) (nil – no score = 0)(if two teams don’t score, we say ‘nil all’!) Spain won by 2 goals… Spain beat Italy 2 to nil. |
| What time did it finish? | It finished very late… It finished very late in the night. It finished very early in the morning (3.30am) It finished around 2am (use ‘around’ when you can’t remember the exact time) |
| Was it an interesting game? How was…the game? How was the race? How was the competition? |
The first half (the first 45 minutes) was very slow. Spain was slow and boring but the second half was great! Spain scored two goals! Rooney was amazing Ronaldo was incredible (phi thường) [in/cred/ah/bull] |
You can talk about what you like…
| What sports do you like? What sports do you enjoy? What sports are you into? (are you into = interested in) |
I like motor sports and Ping-Pong (we call this table tennis sometimes) I like Formula 1 racing (F1) and GP Motobikes. |
| What sports do you like on TV? | I like football and boxing. Do you know Muhammad Ali? He’s the most famous boxer in the world. He’s very old now and very sick. He fought in America and Africa.
And volleyball. Yes, but I play badly. |
Have fun during the Olympics and I hope you make new friends using these tips. And remember, don’t gamble on the sports – you will never win!
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