Present Perfect - Podcast 56

Welcome

Rich: Hello my name’s Rich and welcome to this week’s Premier Skills English podcast.

Jack: Hi everyone. I’m Jack and every week we talk about football and help you with your English.

Rich: This week we’re going to talk more about what has happened at Euro 2016, help you with the present perfect and tell you about our new Euro 2016 competition.

Jack: But first let’s take a look at what you’ve been talking about on the website.

Rich: We’ve had more than 200 comments on the website this week, which is great news!

Jack: Lots of you have sent us comments about Euro 2016. Buchiy from Japan thinks Croatia might surprise a few teams and JBN 11 from France thinks Paul Pogba or Daniel Sturridge will finish as top scorer.

Rich: A lot of you also spoke about pronunciation, which we looked at in last week’s podcast. It was interesting to hear the pronunciation problems you have with English and the pronunciation problems foreigners have with your language.

Jack: And thanks to Haydi from Tunisia for taking the time to analyse some of the common problems that French and Arabic speakers have when speaking English. Have a look at the comments in last week’s podcast and write a reply if you agree with her.

Language Focus / Latest News

Rich: France have qualified for the next round of Euro2016. Italy have also progressed to the next round.

Jack: West Ham’s Dimitri Payet has been France’s best player so far and Sunderland’s Emanuele Giaccherini has played really well for Italy.

Rich: France have qualified... Italy have progressed... Giaccherini has played... that’s a lot of present perfect.

Jack: We create the present perfect by using have in the present tense so have or has in the third person and then the third form of the verb which is sometimes called the past participle.

Rich: For regular verbs, the third form is the same as the past form - that is, the verb plus ‘ed’.

Jack: So; France have qualified for the next round. We use have and then qualified because qualify is a regular verb. We say qualify - qualified - qualified.

Rich: It’s the same with progress. Progress - progressed - progressed. Italy have progressed to the next round.

Jack: Irregular verbs don’t follow the pattern - that’s what makes them irregular. There are lots of irregular verbs in English and you just have to learn them.

Rich: Actually, some of the most common verbs are irregular. Have, do, be, get, go, eat, say, take...

Jack: Here’s another example of the present perfect: Romania and Ukraine have gone home. They have been knocked out of the competition.

Rich: Here we use the verb go. Go is an irregular verb. We say go in the present, went in the past simple and in the third form we say gone. Go-went-gone. Romania and Ukraine have gone home.

Jack: The next sentence is a bit more complicated. This is the present perfect in the passive form. Romania have been knocked out. We make the present perfect passive with ‘have been’ plus the third form of the verb so we say ‘Romania have been knocked out’ or ‘Romania have been knocked out by Albania’.

Rich: Let’s look at another example: In the match between Portugal and Austria Cristiano Ronaldo became the most capped player in the history of Portuguese football. Ronaldo has now played more times for Portugal than any other player. He has won 128 caps for Portugal.

Jack: Here’s a challenge for you. Why do we say Ronaldo has won 128 caps for Portugal but David Beckham won 115 caps for England?

Rich: That’s a good question - OK, let’s see your answers in the comments section.

Football Phrase

Rich: Right, last week’s football phrase was group of death.

Jack: It sounds a bit scary.

Rich: It actually means a group at a football competition where all four teams are strong and have an equal chance of progressing.

Jack: It’s called a group of death because nobody knows which team will survive.

Rich: Lots of you got the right answer, including: Kwesimanifest from Ghana, HassanRaja447 from Pakistan, Elghoul from Algeria, Konstantin Samsonov and Alex from Ukraine, Polevoy2000 from Belarus, and AleksandarR from Montenegro. Well done to all of you!  Have you got a football phrase this week, Jack?

Jack: Yes, I have but I haven’t chosen this week’s football phrase. It’s been chosen by kwesimanifrst from Ghana. If you want to know more about a football phrase, just write a comment for us and we might choose it for the podcast.

Rich: So, what’s Kwesimanifest’s phrase?

Jack: This week’s football phrase is to book a place. This means to go through to the next round of a competition. So you can say France, Switzerland and Italy have all booked a place in the knockout stage of the competition. The first word of the phrase is a synonym for reserve. You can reserve a table at a restaurant for example or maybe a seat on a plane.  

Competition

Rich: We’ve got a new competition for you and another chance to win a Premier League football shirt of your choice for the start of the new Premier League season on the 13th of August.

Jack: And it’s the simplest competition yet. All you have to do is write a comment saying which Premier League player at Euro2016 will score the most goals.

Rich: Just write a comment in the section below. You have to write who you think will score the most goals before 2400 on Friday the 1st of July.

Jack: So, you can watch a few more matches before you make your decision.

Strange but true

Rich: Before we finish, did you see the strange thing that happened in the France - Switzerland match?

Jack: No, I didn’t. What happened?

Rich: A Swiss player tackled a French player and he popped the ball!

Jack: Popped the ball?

Rich: Yes, the studs on his boots ripped right through the ball, making a big tear. And in the same game at least 5 Swiss player’s shirts were ripped too!

Jack: I’ve never seen that happen before. A ball popping! hope they had plenty of extras!

Rich: Right, that’s all we have time for today!

Jack: Don’t forget to write your answers to our questions, football phrase and competition in the comments below.

Rich: Bye for now and enjoy your football!