🤔 A disgrace!?

#011

Hello everyone! I am resending this email because hopefully the video works now!

This week football and language come together.

Let me explain:

Mikel Arteta, born in San Sebastián, is the manager of Arsenal football club.

Unhappy with the decisions made by the referee in a recent match he said:

‘It’s embarrassing. It’s a disgrace’

Now, in England you are not allowed to criticise decisions. If you do, you get banned from matches as a punishment.

Oh dear. Mikel has broken the rules. He will be punished.

But…

To defend himself, Mikel argued that he was thinking desgracia in Spanish, so ‘bad luck’, rather than the English disgrace which means more ‘dishonour’ or ‘shame.’

Hmm…

So Mikel says he said:

‘It’s embarrassing. It’s bad luck / a misfortune’

Not:

‘It’s embarrassing. The referee was shameful’

Now in my opinion he has been clever to avoid punishment, because with his level of English he clearly understands false friends.

For one, he knows the difference between embarazada and embarrassing.

But I’m interested to hear your perspective. Please watch the video below and write to us with your opinion. (Remember you can always put the subtitles on with YouTube videos.)

We will publish the best comment next week.

Guilty or innocent?

This week’s 3 tips:

SOMETHING TO AVOID 🫣

🤦🏻‍♀️ ‘A room bigger’

In English we can’t put the adjective after the noun.

✅ ‘A bigger room’

In English we need to put the adjective, or in this case the comparative, before the noun.

A better example

The faster car

SOMETHING TO SOUND CONFIDENT 🧐

👔 Business jargon explained

‘Move the needle’

Make a change that is noticeable.

We have money to invest in marketing, but will this strategy move the needle?

SOMETHING TO WATCH 👀

Keep learning,

The Crystal Clear English Team

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