Speaker 1: Game, match, two simple words, right, But then when you
watch sports in English, you understand the game itself, but
not always the language. Which one should you use? Sometimes
I hear people say things like I watched a baseball
match and yeah, it's understandable, but not so natural. So
what's the difference. When do you say game and when
do you say match? And how do native speakers actually
talk about sports in everyday English? How about win, lose
and beat? That's what we're going to look at today.
Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast coming to you from
New York City. And here's your English teacher, Michael.
Speaker 1: Alright, thank you John, and thanks everyone. It's Michael here
from Happy English and I help people speak English better.
And this is Happy English Podcast, Episode Oney twenty one, Win, Lose, Beat,
How to talk about sports in English. Let's start with
something that confuses a lot of English learners. That is
the difference between game and match. In American English, we
usually use the word game for major sports like baseball, basketball,
and American football, like you would say, hey, did you
watch the Yankees game last night? Or the Lakers have
a game tonight. On the other hand, match is more
commonly used for sports like tennis, boxing, and European football,
you know soccer. For example, I watch to tennis match yesterday,
or that was a great soccer match. So here's the
key point. In American English, we usually don't say things
like baseball match or basketball match. We say baseball game
or basketball game. If you say baseball match, people will
understand you, but it sounds a little unnatural, like the
Yankees are about to play Wimbledon. So a simple way
to remember this is use game for most American sports,
and use match for sports like tennis, boxing and soccer.
By the way, I'm not a huge sports expert, but
I am an English expert. So let's focus on how
people actually talk, and let's move on to the word play.
We use play when we talk about two teams or
players competing. Play doesn't tell us who won. It just
tells us that the game happened or will happen. For example,
you might say the Yankees played the Angels last night,
or in soccer, Barcelona played Real Madrid yesterday, or in basketball,
the Lakers are playing the Bulls tonight. You can also
ask questions like who is Barcelona playing this weekend? Or
who did they play last night? So remember play is neutral.
It just described the game, not the results. Next up
is win. We use win when we want to talk
about the team or player with the better result in
the game. For example, Barcelona won the game, or the
Lakers won last night. You could also say Serena Williams
won the match. If you're talking about tennis, you can
include the score two. The most natural pattern is to
say the winning team and then the score, just the numbers,
for example, Barcelona one three two or the Lakers one
one oh two to ninety eight. Notice that we usually
just say the numbers, especially in casual conversation, so you'll
often hear things like, oh, they won three two, or
we won five four, or the Yankees beat the Red
Sox five to three. Keep in mind, when we use win,
we're talking about the game or the match, not the
other team. So you can say Barcelona won the game
or just Barcelona one. But we don't. I don't say
Barcelona one Real Madrid. That doesn't sound natural. Now let's
look at lose. Lose is the opposite of win. We
use lose for the team or player that did not win.
For example, Real Madrid lost the game or the Bulls
lost last night. Here too, you can also include the
score Real Madrid lost to one or the Bulls lost
one oh two ninety eight. And keep in mind, lose
is a verb, so you can say the Yankees lost
the game or just the Yankees lost. But we don't
say the Yankees was lost the game. That's not natural.
Just use the verb the Yankees lost. Next, let's look
at beat. This is one of the most us words
in sports English. We use beat when we want to
clearly say who the winner is and who lost in
one sentence. For example, Barcelona beat Real Madrid, the Lakers
beat the Bulls, the Yankees beat the Angels five to two.
So compare these Barcelona one, we don't mention the other team,
Real Madrid lost. We don't mention the winner. Barcelona beat
Real Madrid. Here we show both sides. That's why beat
is so useful. Now let's look at one quick example
from baseball, just so you can understand the vocabulary. If
you hear it, you might hear something like the Angels
got two runs in the third inning. In baseball, runs
are like points or goals in other sports. We don't
use points or goals. In baseball, we say runs. You
might hear something like the pitcher gave up two runs
or the Yankees got three runs. Even if you don't
follow baseball, I think it's good to recognize these words.
So let's recap first. Remember that in American English we
usually say game for sports like baseball and basketball, and
match for sports like tennis, boxing and soccer. We use
play to talk about the game itself. Barcelona played Real Madrid.
We use win for the team or player with the
better result. Barcelona won, we use lose for the other side,
Real Madrid lost, and we use beat to clearly show
both sides. Barcelona beat Real Madrid. So remember we win
the game, lose the game, but we beat the other team.
These are simple words, but they're used all the time
in everyday English, especially when people talk about sports. So
here's your challenge this week. If you watch a game
or even see a score online, try describing it in English.
You can say things like the Lakers beat the Bulls,
Manchester City one, Chelsea lost last night. That's how you
start making this kind of English natural. And keep in
mind the best way to remember English like this and
any other word or phrase in English is to take
that word or phrase write it in a sentence that's
true for you or true in your world, and then
memorize your sentences. Hey, thanks for listening, and remember learning
another languge which is not easy, but it's not impossible,
and I'm here to help you on your journey.
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