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For this week’s short football language podcast, we look at the verb phrase ‘to take on‘. Check out our football glossaryA andA football cliches pages for hundreds more explanations of the language of soccer.A If you have any questions, suggestions or comments then please email us at: admin@languagecaster.com.A (DB=Damon)
Listening Report: Take On
DB: Youa€™re listening to languagecaster.com. Hi there everyone, and welcome to languagecaster and another short podcast on the language of football. My name’s Damon, I’m based in Tokyo, which is enjoying some wonderful early spring weather. As you will know if you are a regular listener, I’m one of the languagecaster team, the other being Damian, who is based in London. We both hope you are all well and enjoying the football wherever you are listening in world.
Now today, I’ll be talking about a verb phrase, to take on, but before I start, here’s a message in Danish.
Stinger: You’re listening to languagecaster.com (in Danish)
To Take On
Yes, you are listening to languagecaster.com, and thank you Mads in Copenhagen for that message. If we have any Finnish, Norwegian or Swedish listeners, maybe they could send in a recording of ‘You are listening to languagecaster.com’ in their language to admin@languagecaster.com. We’re trying to expand our collection of languages!
The Grammar
OK, first let’s look at how to use today’s phrase grammatically. The verb phrase can be split, so take someone on, or take something on. The verb ‘take’ is followed by a noun and then the preposition ‘on’. It can also be used without splitting the verb and preposition, take on someone, take on something. This is more common with the pattern ‘take on someone‘.
The Meaning
Now, what about the meaning? The first pattern, with take something on, means to try something, to attempt something or to take responsibility. The second pattern, to take someone on is slightly different, meaning to challenge someone, to battle against someone, to try to beat someone.
Examples
Let’s take a look at some examples. I was watching Sheffield United versus Aston Villa in the Premier League today and I heard the commentators describe a goal like this: ‘Baldock, I think hea€™s taken a shot on. But McGoldrick doesna€™t give it up. He keeps running. Hea€™s onside and he gets a bit of luck, in off the underside of the bara€¦ So, Baldock triedA a shot, he attempted a shot. The commentator said, he took a shot on, and a teammate, McGoldrick got on the end of the missed shot and scored.
And here’s an example from a BBC match report – Ross County versus Rangers:
‘Mullin was growing in confidence. Another run through the middle, this time he took the shot on and McGregor had to tip over.’
Ok, and now an example of take someone on, again from the BBC. This time a match report – Tottenham versus Manchester United:
“He (Bergwijn) just took on the defence and Harry Maguire did not know whether to come or go and he left him for dead. What a finish. Before David de Gea could react it was practically in the back of the net.”
Other Phrases
Good bye
And that brings us to the end of this short podcast., If you like what we do, tell your friends or support us via patreon.com/languagecaster. You can follow us on Twitter and most social media platforms, and you can get in touch us via admin@languagecaster.com. And remember there is a transcript to this show on our website.
Thanks for listening. Stay safe, enjoy the football, and we’ll be back soon with some more football language to talk about.
Ta-ra.
Check out our glossary of footballing phrases here and if you have any suggestions, contact us at admin@languagecaster.com
Contact Us
Hello, Damian. Seems the same. It couldn’t be opened. Now the statement goes like this “Page not found
The page that you are looking for does not exist on this website. You may have accidentally mistyped the page address, or followed an expired link. Anyway, we will help you get back on track. Why not try to search for the page you were looking for:”
Hi Dwi,
I think it is fixed now (hopefully)
Damian
Hello, Damian. When I clicked it, it appears this statement “Sorry, there is no content found on this page. Feel free to contact the website administrator regarding this issue.”
How can I open it?
Hi Dwi,
Thanks for letting me know.
How abut now if you click on the forum
https://languagecaster.com/forum/
Is there a problem with Forum? I can’t access or enter it?
Hi Dwi, The Forum link is here. When you click on this what do you see?
Thanks for letting us know
Damian
What does the verb “come” or “go” mean in the sentence “whether to come and go?” Also, what does “what a…!” mean? For example: what a finish!, What a goal!, Etc.
He (Bergwijn) just took on the defence and Harry Maguire did not know whether to come or go and he left him for dead. What a finish. Before David de Gea could react it was practically in the back of the net.
This phrase means that Maguire doesn’t know what to do; he is uncertain whether he should move towrads the ball or move away(coming and going). If someone doesn’t know whether to come or go it means that they are confused about what to do.
The phrase ‘What a ____!’ is an exclamation and in this example it means that Bergwijn has scored a great goal – ‘what a finish’ really means that the player has scored a really good goal.
Hello. What does “ask questions” mean in football/soccer context?
Chelsea continue to try to ask questions of this City defence. They have scored eight goals from corners this season, and have another chance now but Ruben Dias rises to head clear. He’s been immense at the back.
69mins: Newcastle 0-1 Leicester Matty Longstaff puts in a very tempting ball after great work from Jacob Murphy on the counter attack. Newcastle asking questions of the Leicester defence.
85 min Dezeko asks questions of Ashdown in the Leeds goal with a rasping angled shot from the corner of the box. It was finding its way inside the near post until the goalkeeper got good strong hands to it.
Thanks for the question Sandara.
To ‘ask a question’ is to test someone, see if they can perform well.
If a striker shoots on goal, they ‘ask the goalkeeper a question’; they test the goalkeeper’s skill.
If a team ‘asks a question’ of another team’s defence, they are attacking and testing the otehr team; the other team is under pressure.
Great question!
Thanks for the question Sandara.
To ‘ask a question’ is to test someone, see if they can perform well.
If a striker shoots on goal, they ‘ask the goalkeeper a question’; they test the goalkeeper’s skill.
If a team ‘asks a question’ of another team’s defence, they are attacking and testing the other team; the other team is under pressure.
Great question!