Name: Djokovic hits line judge with ball - News Review
Uploaded: 2020-10-24T19:35:09.000Z
Duration: 13 min 24 s
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Hello and welcome to News Review from BBC Learning English.

I'm Neil. Joining me is Catherine. Hello Catherine.

Hello Neil. Hello everybody. Yes, a sports story today and tennis player

Novak Djokovic has been disqualified from the US Open.

And don't forget, you've got to test yourself on the vocabulary from this

News Review. Go to our website at bbclearningenglish.com to find it.

Right. Let's hear more about that story about Novak Djokovic

Yes. World tennis number one, Novak Djokovic,

is out of the US Open. He hit a ball in anger; it hit a line judge in

the neck. She's not seriously injured but he's been

OK. It's the story everyone's talking about. What vocabulary

Yes, we have: 'kicked out', 'blown his or her or their chances' and 'fuel'.

'Kicked out', 'blown his/her/their chances' and 'fuel'.

OK. Let's have a look at your first headline.

The first word: 'kicked' – K-I-C-K-E-D – and the second word 'out' – O-U-T.

Now, I know what 'kick' means, Catherine.

pretty hard with your foot so... That's right.

Are we saying here that Novak Djokovic was 'kicked' so hard

Like a footballer? Like a giant football.

Err... no. Clearly we're not saying that. But the idea

of being forcibly – forcibly having to leave or move

is the idea of 'kick'. If you kick a football it moves, whether it wants to or

not, because you've used some force, and that's the idea here:

Novak Djokovic has been required to leave

forcefully – not with actual physical force

but he's got to go and he may – whether he wants to or not, he's going.

Now the idea of 'kicked out' also means that you have to leave

an organisation, an event, or some other kind of activity because

you've broken the rules. Now, here the rule – clearly there's a rule against

hitting umpires with balls and hitting balls in anger.

He broke that rule so he's required to leave. So, if you break a rule somewhere

Neil, you may be or you may get kicked out.

OK. Now, we've heard another word with a similar meaning: 'disqualify'.

So, why can't I just say 'disqualify'? What's  different about 'kicked out'?

Well, 'disqualified' is more formal. It's a bit longer.

It's less dramatic than the idea of 'kick',

isn't it? So, newspapers like this because of the drama and because it's

more colloquial and because it's slightly shorter.

Meaning-wise, they're very similar but I would say that 'kick out',

as well as being informal, has a broader meaning.

So, if you get 'kicked out' of a meeting, you haven't been

disqualified because you haven't broken a set of

official rules and a meeting isn't a competition – because 'disqualify' is for

things like competitions – but 'kicks' or 'kicks out' has a wider range

of uses for a wider range of situations. But it still means you've

for the first time in months, recently. Nice!

drink, but somebody had got a little bit too excited perhaps:

they had a bit too much to drink, they're making lots of noise,

upsetting people, and the barman kicked him out. He got kicked out.

or you can 'be kicked out' – often used in the passive – and it's not just

for physical places as well; you can get kicked out of a

Facebook group if you break the rules or if you upset

people. So, you can get kicked out of virtual

organisations and groups as well as real ones.

If you would like to learn more about phrasal verbs like

'kicked out', we have the perfect programme for you,

Don't miss it – it's a lot of fun. Click the link.

'Blown his, her or their chances' – missed an opportunity.

Yes. Two words: B-L-O-W-N – 'blown' – that's the past participle

The second word: C-H-A-N-C-E-S – that's chances,

or as people like you pronounce it, Neil?

and elsewhere. You will hear two pronunciations of this word:

'chances' or 'chances'. You choose the one you like; they're both

I think it's probably most useful to think of the word

mouth out of your – sorry – air out of your mouth, like...

if you're blowing on hot soup, for example. But we also talk about things

something, another word to describe... a synonym for explode is blow up

and this is right. This is the better way to think of it.

He had an opportunity. The opportunity is gone

instantly. It went spectacularly: it was dramatic,  it was exciting, it was

big, it was shocking and that's the idea. If you blow your chances,

you really really do something that just makes

Subtitles ListPlay Video

Djokovic hits line judge with ball - News Review

intense

opportunity

critical

physical