The Language of Postponements and Cancellations: In this football language post we explain some of the words and phrases connected to postponements and cancellations as nearly all football leagues have been forced to stop due to Coronavirus 19. Is there a difference between the verbs ‘postpone’ and ‘cancel‘? How about ‘suspend‘? What do we mean by the term ‘void‘ and what is ‘expunge‘? Don’t forget we have hundreds more explanations of football language in our football glossary. You can listen to the podcast by clicking on the file below – you can also subscribe and listen to all our football-language podcasts. There is also a transcript so you can improve your English by reading as you listen, or if you are a teacher of English you can use the transcript to make several activities for your learners. If you have questions or comments, email us at: [email protected] (Damian=DF)

Introduction

DF: Hello everybody, my name is Damian  and I am one half of the languagecaster team and you’re listening to the Learn English Through Football Podcast. We hope that you are well and safe wherever you are listening to us. Now, obviously there is no football taking place at the moment so on this extra listening podcast we take a look at some of the language being used to describe phrases connected to postponements and cancellations. Now, we have a transcript with this short report so you can improve your English by reading as you listen, or if you are a teacher of English you can use the transcript to make several activities for your learners. If you have any questions, suggestions or comments then you can email us at: [email protected].

Stinger: You are listening to Languagecaster.com (in Vietnamese)

To postpone/postponement

DF: OK, first of all we will start with the verb ‘to postpone‘ and then explain ‘cancel‘, ‘suspend‘, ‘void‘ and ‘expunge‘.

The verb to postpone is used quite a lot in football when a match cannot take place at a certain time but can be played again at a later date – this, as we shall see, is different from void and cancel. In a regular season a match may be postponed because of a waterlogged pitch (so the game is unplayable as there is too much water on the pitch) or maybe one of the teams has to play another game in a different competition at the same time. Currently, the FA have postponed all football in England until the end of April although that date will more than likely change over the next few days. Some big tournaments have already been postponed including the Olympic football tournament which will now take place in 2021, as will the European Championships which were due to take place this summer but will now be played in the summer of 2021.

* Example: Postponement of professional game extended after update from FA, Premier League & EFL (FA.com March 19 2020).