SPORTS VOCABULARY

Do, play and go

The table below gives examples of common sporting collocations with do, play and go.

You do Gymnastics, judo, weightlifting, aerobics, yoga, wrestling, circuit training,

archery, athletics.
You play Games, badminton, billiards, hockey, bowls, rugby, golf, (table) tennis,
cricket, baseball, chess, darts, cards, dominoes.
You go Fishing, skiing, bowling, cycling, skateboarding, surfing, snowboarding, hang-
gliding, climbing, hill walking, sailing, jogging, swimming.

You can also say you go to aerobics/judo/yoga/karate – this means that you go to a class in this
sport.

Error warning

Learners often make mistakes with some common collocations connected with sport. Make a point
of learning these commonly used collocations.

• You do or play sport. (NOT make sport)

• You do exercises. (NOT make exercises)
• You play computer or other games. (NOT do games)
• You have/play a game of cards. (NOT make a game)
• You go skiing. (NOT make skiing)
• You do activities. (NOT make or practice activities)

If you are a serious sportsperson, you will certainly practice your sport, but that has a specific
meaning, which is to do something again and again in order to get better at it, in other words to
train. If you are a footballer you might practice taking a penalty, for example.

Winning and losing

Sportsmen and sportswomen want to win matches, not lose matches. But you can’t win all the
time! Sometimes a team or player deserves to win, but gets narrowly defeated/beaten.

Before they go in for/enter a competition, athletes train hard. They probably attend/do at least
five training sessions a week. They are likely to put up a fight to gain/get a place in the next
stage/round of the competition. Of course, a sportsperson’s ultimate aim is to break the world
record in their sport. If they succeed, they set a new world record and become a world record
holder. They are sure to come up against fierce/intense competition as they try to achieve their
ambitions. Sometimes they are satisfied if they just achieve a personal best.

Some sports people so desperately want to win that they take drugs to enhance their
performance. This will be discovered when they fail a drugs test.

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Football

You can play or have a (football) match/game (of football). It might be a home or an away
match depending on whether you’re playing on your team’s home ground or not.

The aim is to score a goal. Players may tackle an opponent to try to take possession of the ball1.
If you tackle in an illegal way, you foul your opponent. This will lead to the referee blowing his
whistle and an opponent taking a penalty or taking a free kick. If someone isn’t playing very
well the manager may decide to drop the player from the team or bring on a substitute2. Both
teams hope that they will have taken the lead3 by half-time.

Fitness and good health

Look at this magazine questionnaire and note the collocations relating to fitness.

1. Do you take regular vigorous exercise?

2. Do you eat a balanced diet?
3. Do you care about healthy eating?
4. Do you follow a personal fitness programme?
5. Do you always stick to your programme?
6. In general, have you kept fit over the last two years?

EXERCISES

1. Complete the sentences with do, play or go in the correct form.

New Sports Club Opening Next Week

You can ……………. judo! You can ……………… badminton!

You can …………... swimming! You can ……………… weight lifting!
You can …………... circuit training! You can ……………… table tennis!
You can ………….. skateboarding! You can even …………. darts!
In fact, you can …………….. almost any sport you can think of. So join now!

1
Get the ball
2
Replace one player with another
3
Be in a winning position
2
2. Make ten collocations by matching a word from the box on the left with a word or
phrase from the box on the right.
the lead a competition
best your performance
personal set
a substitute a drugs test
blow achieve
a record hard
bring on train
a whistle your ambitions
fail enhance
enter take

3. Look at the error warning. There are six verb + noun errors in this e-mail. Find and
correct them.

Hi, Jose,
Do you fancy coming on a sporting weekend with me next month? It sounds great – would make
a change from playing computer games. You can make lots of different activities. You could even
do fishing, I think. You can’t go skiing at this time of year but you can make water skiing, if you
like. Everyone has to make general exercises first thing in the morning and then you can make
whatever sport you like, more or less. I’ve never practiced badminton so I think I’m going to do
that. Then in the afternoon I’m looking forward to the chance to practice my tennis serve with
their professional coach. Please try to come!
Giorgio

4. Complete the collocations in this report of a rugby match.

Cambridge were happy to (1) …………………….. their last match 6:0. Oxford, the
opposing team, put up a good (2) …………………. and some people thought they (3)
…………….. to win. They were fearless in (4) ………………. their opponents, but every
time they took (5) ………………………. of the ball, Cambridge managed to win it back.
Cambridge have now (6) …………….. a place in the next (7) …………………… of the
competition. They will undoubtedly come up against some fierce (8) ………………….. .
However, they have already managed to (9) ……………………….an interesting world
record by having four members of the same family in their winning team!

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Common sports

Equipment – what you hold in your hand

Golf – club squash / tennis / badminton – racket darts – dart

Cricket / table-tennis / baseball – bat snooker / pool/ billiards – cue
Canoeing - paddle rowing – oar fishing – rod / line hockey – stick

Athletics – some field events

She’s a good sprinter. [fast over short distances]

He’s a great long-distance runner. [e.g. 5000 metres, marathon]
Jogging round the park every Saturday’s enough for me.

Verbs and their collocations in the context of sport

Our team won / lost by three goals / points.

She broke the Olympic record last year.
He holds the record for the 100 metres breast-stroke.
Liverpool beat Hamburg 4-2 yesterday.
The team have never been defeated. [more formal than beat]
How many goals / points have you scored this season?
I think I’ll take up bowls next spring and give up golf.

People who do particular sports

-er can be used for many sports, e.g. footballer, swimmer, windsurfer, high-jumper, cricketer, golfer, etc.
Player is often necessary, e.g. tennis-player, snooker-player, darts-player; we can also say football-player,
cricket-player. Some names must be learnt separately, e.g. canoeist, cyclist, mountaineer , jockey, archer
(not archerer), gymnast.

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EXERCISES

1-Which of the sports opposite are these people probably talking about?

1-“The ball has a natural curve on it so it doesn’t go in a straight line on the grass.”
2-“Provided it’s not too windy at the top, there’s no problem.”
3-“It is incredibly noisy, fast and dangerous, but it’s really exciting to watch.”
4-“You get sore at first and can hardly sit down, but you get used to it after a while.”
5-“It’s all a matter of balance really.”
6-“You need a good eye and a lot of concentration.”

2-Name one other piece of equipment necessary to play these sports apart from the item
given, as in the example. What special clothing, if any, is worn for each sport?
Example: golf: clubs, balls
1- Archery: bow,….
2- Badminton: racket, …
3- Hockey: stick, …
4- Baseball: bat,….
5- Darts: darts,…

3-Collocations. Fill the gaps with suitable verbs.

1- Were many records ………………….. at the Olympics?
2- We’ve been …………………… so many times we deserve to be bottom of the league!
3- Congratulations! How many points did you ……………… by?
4- You should ………………….. jogging. That would help you lose weight.
5- Who …………………….. the world record for the 100 metres? Is it a Russian?
6- I only ever once ……………….. a goal, and that was sheer luck.

4-What do you call a person who …?

1- Does the long-jump? A long-jumper 5- does gymnastics?
2- Rides horses in races? 6- plays hockey?
3- Drives cars in races? 7- plays football?
4- Throws the discuss/javelin? 8- does the pole-vault?

5-Make sure you know which sports these places are associated with, as in the example.
1- Court: tennis, squash, etc.
2- Course:
3- Ring:
4- Pitch:
5- Rink:
6- Alley:
7- Piste: