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Easy: Friendly

Easy: Friendly

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 friendly

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 word we are looking at in this episode is friendly.

Jack: How are you doing today Rich? Did you have a good weekend? Shall we go out for a drink later?

Rich: That’s very friendly, Jack. Very nice. Maybe we could go to the coach and horses. It’s a nice family-friendly place. We could grab something to eat.

Jack: Good idea. The people there are always very friendly.

Rich: OK, so the word friendly is used as an adjective most to describe people or even places that are nice or pleasant in some way.

Jack: Or who are kind and do nice things for you. What about football though? I suppose your teammates are friendly - you’re probably friends with your teammates.

Rich: You’re probably right but the word we want to speak about is the noun - a friendly.


Jack: A friendly is a sports match between two teams that is not part of any official competition.

Rich: They are officially called friendly matches but we shorten it to just friendly.

Jack: Premier League teams usually play friendlies before the season start. These are called pre-season friendlies.

Rich: Or sometimes you might hear a behind-closed-doors friendly. These are matches that take place without fans and are usually played when players need to get match practice after an injury.

Jack: Pre-season friendlies, behind-closed-doors friendlies … when we use the plural, spelling is important, isn’t it?

Rich: Yes, we have to remember that a friendly ends in a ‘y’ but when we speak about ‘friendlies’ we drop the ‘y’ and add ‘ies’.

Jack: That’s right. When words end in a consonant plus a ‘y’ like ‘friendly’ we add ‘ies’ to make the plural. Omther examples are ‘baby’, ‘country’ or ‘factory’.

Rich: When words end in a vowel plus a ‘y’ we just add an ‘s’. Some examples are ‘boys’, ‘keys’ and ‘donkeys’.


Jack: So, are friendly matches friendly?

Rich: Normally, they’re not supposed to be overly competitive because nobody wants to get an injury but there are exceptions.

Jack: Exceptions?

Rich: Well, there’s a team who play in the Spanish top division called Villarreal. They played a small local team in a pre-season friendly.

Jack: And what happened?

Rich; They won 27-0. Not very friendly at all. They should call it an unfriendly!

Final whistle

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.

Comment

Discuss

Why do clubs play friendly matches before the season starts?

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Comments

PhuCuong
30/03/2024
VN
103
points

Friendlies are a good way to warm up before the season starts.


PhuCuong
30/03/2024 08:12
Vietnam
Arsenal
103

Friendlies are a good way to warm up before the season starts.

KareemZain
07/08/2023
EG
383
points

Clubs play friendly matches before the season starts as a preparation period to test new players, new tactics and so on.


KareemZain
07/08/2023 18:11
Egypt
Manchester City
383

Clubs play friendly matches before the season starts as a preparation period to test new players, new tactics and so on.

Michaelsun
16/02/2022
CN
738
points

Clubs play friendliest before the season starts because friendlies are a kind of warming up for the new season.


Michaelsun
16/02/2022 15:14
China
Manchester United
738

Clubs play friendliest before the season starts because friendlies are a kind of warming up for the new season.

Gabriel Amaral's picture
Gabriel Amaral
28/04/2021
BR
1512
points

To do final tests on formations, style of play, set pieces, etc.


Gabriel Amaral's picture
Gabriel Amaral
28/04/2021 18:42
Brazil
Arsenal
1512

To do final tests on formations, style of play, set pieces, etc.

Alex_from_Ukraine's picture
Alex_from_Ukraine
02/12/2020
UA
6578
points

Nowadays, unfortunately, all friendlies are behind-closed-doors friendlies.


Alex_from_Ukraine's picture
Alex_from_Ukraine
02/12/2020 13:31
Ukraine
Liverpool
6578

Nowadays, unfortunately, all friendlies are behind-closed-doors friendlies.

Alex_from_Ukraine's picture
Alex_from_Ukraine
02/12/2020
UA
6578
points

Friendly matches serve the target to check the readiness of players for the season.


Alex_from_Ukraine's picture
Alex_from_Ukraine
02/12/2020 13:29
Ukraine
Liverpool
6578

Friendly matches serve the target to check the readiness of players for the season.

Leaderboard

Top Scorers
RankNameScore
1Alex_from_Ukraine6578
2mobeckham6539
3hsn5560
4wsanta5086
5kwesimanifest4779
6Liubomyr4417
7elghoul3988
8assemjuve3705
9aragorn19863557
10Gergő Nagy3396
Country ranking
RankNameScore
1Colombia74676
2Ukraine33885
3Spain29525
4Serbia27426
5Brazil23505
6Albania20578
7Vietnam20460
8Turkey20111
9Macedonia19074
10Bosnia and Herzegovina16333
Club ranking
RankNameScore
1Manchester United146938
2Liverpool111453
3Chelsea90265
4Arsenal86299
5Manchester City58908
6Tottenham Hotspur19499
7Newcastle United10626
8West Ham United7701
9AFC Bournemouth4915
10Crystal Palace4568

Level

1
Average: 1 (1 vote)

Goals

Learn more football vocabulary