Today was the last day of the group stage. I'm not sure about you but I was pleased with the final results. The last match-ups are finalized as Brazil meeting Chile (sure to be a dazzling game) and Spain meeting Portugal (I can't wait).
Although it is easy to focus on the negative words and phrases of everyday English, today we will discuss some 'nice words' that have been uttered by our football announcers during the games.
1) He has really "given his all". - To "give your all" is to try your hardest to accomplish something. Actual success is not measured but the effort put into attempted success is. For example: "You may not have won the game, but I know you gave your all. No one could have tried any harder than you." You can use this phrase anytime you want to describe someone's strong effort to win. "My mother gave it her all in convincing the policeman but in the end she was given the parking ticket." You can also use this phrase when success has occurred. "We tried for months to get the contract with that overseas company and finally we succeeded. Giving it our all really paid off."
2) They are "flying high" tonight. - "Flying high" is being very happy. We can say "You look up in the clouds today." and we mean that you look extremely happy. The football players who won the game and qualified for the next round were flying high after the game.
Unfortunately, there can be a negative connotation with this phrase because the term "high" also refers to being on drugs or having had a quantity of alcohol. You should be aware of this when you use the expression because even though you mean it innocently, some listeners may laugh thinking you mean the 'drug' version of the expression. You can use the expression at work: "We were flying high after we landed that new client. Everyone was overjoyed."
3) This game is "a thrill a minute". - A simple expression meant to emphasize the amount of entertainment something has given - something exciting. In this case, the announcer was describing a football match that had very even ball possession and many shots on target. We weren't sure until the end of the game who the winner would be. Other things that could be considered "a thrill a minute" could include; a roller coaster, a vacation or a scary movie. In football, we often use an expression meaning the opposite like "it was a real snoozer" suggesting that the game was boring. "Snoozer" is not an actual word but it derives from the word "snooze" which means "sleep".
4) to excite or vuvuzelerate their team - OK just a small joke one announcer made. He was describing the fans of a team that was struggling on the pitch. The fans began making an enormous amount of noise and in this World Cup that cannot be done well without blowing those special horns - the vuvuzelas. So this announcer made up a word "vuvuzelerate" to describe the fans' attempts at inspiring their team. The creation of words, in particular the creation of verbs from nouns, is an extremely common practice in English. We do it all the time. Although the word may not be official, we guess at the meaning from our knowledge of the original word. For example, we all know what a chair is and that the word is a noun. But I have heard the command "Chair me." many times. The extrapolated meaning here is that you want someone to give you a chair. Sorry, but it does happen all the time and is a large part of common English slang. Try it. You might enjoy it.
On to the Round of 16!
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