Sport and Exercise
Learn 20 easy A1 English words for sport and exercise - team, match, score, win, lose, gym - plus win vs beat, a story and a quiz.
Sport is where English hides two small mistakes that native speakers notice immediately: saying we won Egypt instead of we beat Egypt, and saying play swimming instead of go swimming. This lesson fixes both. Learn the 20 words, then come to a football pitch behind a school on a Thursday evening, where twelve men who are no longer young take everything extremely seriously.
20 words to learn
The 20 words
/spɔːt/
A physical game or activity like football or swimming. Americans say sports.
Which sport do you like watching?
/ˈfʊtbɔːl/
The game with eleven players and one ball. Americans say soccer.
We play football every Thursday.
/ˈbɑːskɪtbɔːl/
The game where you throw the ball into a high net.
She plays basketball for the university.
/ˈtenɪs/
The game with rackets, a net and a small ball.
We play tennis badly but happily.
/swɪm/
To move through water. Past tense: swam.
I learned to swim when I was six.
/rʌn/
To move fast on your feet. Past tense: ran.
He runs five kilometres before work.
/tiːm/
A group of people who play together.
There are eleven people in a football team.
/ˈpleɪə(r)/
A person who plays a sport or game.
He is the oldest player on the pitch.
/mætʃ/
One game between two teams or people.
The match starts at nine.
/wɪn/
To finish first, or to be the better team. Past tense: won.
We won the match three-two.
/luːz/
To not win. Past tense: lost.
They lost every game last year.
/skɔː(r)/
The numbers that say who is winning. Also a verb.
The final score was two-nil.
/ɡəʊl/
A point in football, and the net you shoot at.
He scored the winning goal.
/bɔːl/
The round thing you play most sports with.
Somebody always forgets the ball.
/dʒɪm/
The building with machines and weights for exercise.
I go to the gym twice a week.
/kəʊtʃ/
The person who trains a team and decides how they play.
The new coach changed everything.
/fɪt/
Strong and healthy because you exercise.
Walking every day keeps her fit.
/treɪn/
To practise regularly for a sport.
The team trains on Monday and Wednesday.
/ˈsaɪkl/
To ride a bicycle.
He cycles to work in the summer.
/wɔːk/
To move on your feet at a normal speed. The l is silent.
She walks five kilometres every morning.
Now read the story
Story · all 20 words
The Thursday Team
Every Thursday at nine in the evening, twelve men who are no longer young meet on a small football pitch behind the school. It is, without any competition, the most important hour of my father’s week.
None of them is fit. They do not train. There is no coach, there is no plan, and there has not been a plan since about 2006. But every Thursday they arrive, they put two bags down on the grass to make a goal, and somebody always remembers the ball – though never the same somebody.
The match lasts an hour. The score is usually somewhere around nine to eight, because not one person on that pitch is willing to defend. Whichever team is behind simply asks for another five minutes, and then another five, until they win. In fourteen years nobody has actually had to lose.
My father is the oldest player there by nine years. He cannot run the way he used to, so he stands in the middle of everything and passes the ball with one touch, which the younger ones find far more annoying than speed. Twice a week he also goes to the gym for twenty minutes, and then complains about it for two hours.
The rest of us took different roads. My mother walks five kilometres every morning with two neighbours and considers this the only sensible sport ever invented. My brother cycles forty kilometres on a Friday and comes home unable to speak. My sister plays tennis badly and basketball extremely well, and she used to swim for the school before she decided that early mornings were not for her.
Last Thursday I went with my father for the first time in years. We lost, or we would have lost if losing were permitted. Afterwards everybody sat on the low wall by the gate, ate something nobody could identify, and argued about a match from 2011. On the way home my father said: “You see? It was never about the football.” And then he talked about the football for the entire drive.
Win or beat? This is the mistake that gives learners away instantly:
✓ We won the match. (you win a thing: a match, a game, a cup)
✓ We beat Egypt. (you beat a person or team)
✗ We won Egypt. ✗ We beat the match.
Past tenses: win → won, beat → beat (it does not change), lose → lost.
Play, go or do – the same three groups as the hobbies lesson:
play football, tennis, basketball (games with an opponent)
go swimming, running, cycling (activities ending in -ing)
do exercise, yoga, karate
So it is I go swimming, never I play swimming.
Saying the score: two-one (written 2-1), and zero is nil in British football: The score was two-nil. In tennis, zero is love – which nobody can explain.
Pronunciation: the l in walk is silent – say WAWK. Same in talk and half.
The sports: football, basketball, tennis, swim, run, cycle, walk.
The people: team, player, coach.
The event: match, score, goal, ball, win, lose.
Staying healthy: sport, gym, fit, train.
Answer these three: Do you play any sport? Which team do you support? When did you last watch a match? Use beat correctly at least once.
Now practise with the questions below.
Check your understanding
Answer the questions below. You will see instantly if you are right.
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