Italy win Euro 2020 - News Review

Hello and welcome to News Review from BBC Learning English.

I'm Neil. Joining me today is Tom. Hi there, Tom.

Hello Neil and hello to our audience.

Good news for Italy; bad news for England. Italy have won Euro 2020.

If you want to test yourself on the vocabulary you hear in this

programme, there's a quiz on our website at bbclearningenglish.com.

Now, let's hear some more about the story from this BBC News report:

So, Euro 2020 has finished.

Sunday evening was the final, the final match here in London.

Italy won – congratulations to Italy – and England lost on penalties.

That's the end of the story, Neil, unfortunately.

Yes... yeah. Difficult one for us isn't it, Tom?

But congratulations to Italy. You've been looking around the

various news websites at this story and what have you got?

I have: 'erupts', 'shoulders blame' and 'broke into'.

'Erupts', 'shoulders blame' and 'broke into'.

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

My first headline, Neil, is from Reuters – it says:

'Erupts' – expresses something suddenly and with force.

Now Tom, 'erupt' – that's got something to do with a volcano,

hasn't it? Is that what we're talking about – volcanoes?

It does, yeah. If you think about what the volcano does:

it explodes and the lava comes out.

The verb that we would use for this is 'erupt'. It's very dramatic.

Yeah. So, why are we talking about a football match and this word?

I think it's... it's very dramatic, the imagery,

when we use 'erupt' like this in a figurative way.

If you think of a volcano and everything goes bang!

It happens very quickly and it's very intense.

I imagine when Italy scored their final penalty last night

that a lot of celebrations 'erupted' in the country.

They came suddenly and quickly, and they were very strong and dramatic.

Yeah. Now what words do we use around this word 'erupt'?

So, we would actually normally use this with a preposition 'in'

or 'into', like 'in' is in the headline. If we say, 'The Italians erupted,'

it's not very specific – could actually mean they exploded.

So, if you 'erupt in' celebration or 'erupt into' celebration,

it tells you the state that you enter quickly.

Yeah. And as you've already said, it's dramatic

and we use this to talk about extreme emotions, don't we?

So, joy but also the negative side of things – violence.

Yeah. Yeah, precisely. It can have a negative use as well.

It's very common to see the expression 'erupt into violence'.

So, if you think about violence that happens very quickly and is

intense and dramatic, we would also use this expression 'erupt'.

Yeah. And we've been looking at it here as a verb,

but it also exists as a noun: 'eruption'.

Yeah. 'Eruption' – E-R-U-P-T-I-O-N – is the noun form.

OK. Let's get a summary:

Well, things change quickly in football, don't they?

It seems like only a couple of years ago, we were talking about the

fact that Italy hadn't qualified for the 2018 World Cup and now

they're European champions. Where can our viewers find that story?

They can find it by clicking the link in the description of the video.

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

Sure. My next headline, Neil, is from here in the UK.

It's from the Independent – it says:  

And that language is 'shoulders blame'.

'shoulders blame' – accepts responsibility.

'Shoulders blame'. 'Shoulders blame' is a fixed expression –

means accept responsibility. 'Blame' is negative responsibility.

So, the headline is saying that Gareth Southgate,

the manager of England, accepts the 'blame': he 'shoulders'

or takes the negative responsibility for the defeat of his country's team.

Yeah. Now, I know what a 'shoulder' is.

That's this thing here – it's part of the body.

So, why are we talking about a part of the body and this 'blame'.

We did a News Review recently, Neil, about a word 'burden'

and 'burden' is kind of, like, a heavy negative responsibility.

And if you 'shoulder a burden', it means that you carry it.

You kind of carry it and it weighs heavily around your 'shoulders'.

So, you've got this sort of... the imagery

makes it as if you've got a weight around you

that's uncomfortable, you know.

Yeah. It's a kind of figurative weight.

You know, if you ever go backpacking or something,

you carry the rucksack on your 'shoulders' and there's a weight.

This is a figurative weight: the weight of 'blame'.

It is and actually we have another expression in English, Neil,

which is if... you know, if you feel relief, if you lose responsibility,

you can say, 'That's a weight off my shoulders.' So,

you don't have to carry it any more, yeah.

So, 'shoulders the blame' is accepts or carries responsibility

We can use 'shoulder' also as a verb in another sense.

We can. This is a bit more literal – a bit more, kind of,

practical if you will. Imagine if someone...

if you go shopping and someone bangs into you with the shoulder – bang!

And they push you out of the way – they 'shoulder you' or they 'shoulder

into you'. If you push someone with your shoulder, you 'shoulder' them.

OK. Let's get a summary:

So, we've been talking about the use of 'shoulder' and we mentioned a

previous News Review about overwork. Where can our viewers find that, Tom?

Same as ever, Neil: please go in the video description and click the link.

OK. Let's have our next headline please.

Our next headline is from at home, the BBC – it says:

'Broke into' – entered without permission.

'Broke into' – the phrasal verb.

The phrasal verb in the present is 'break into'.

And if you 'break into' somewhere, you enter without permission.

The headline uses 'broke' because it's in the past;

the final has finished. The headline is referring to

some England fans who entered Wembley Arena illegally.

They didn't have a ticket. They didn't have permission to be there.

So, we use this phrasal verb 'break into'.

Yeah. And it starts with the word 'break'.

Are they actually 'breaking' something?

Is it helpful to think in those terms?

Hmmm... kind of.

We often use 'break into' with crime, especially kind of stealing or

thievery, and if you think... if you enter someone's house without

permission, you might 'break' the window to get into the house.

So, you would often see it in a context of crime.

Yeah – also exists as a noun:

we can describe when someone 'breaks into' a property

as 'a break-in'.

A 'break-in', yeah. Spelt the same: a 'break-in' is an act

or an instance of entering someone's property without permission,

probably to steal things.

Yeah. Be careful though:

the verb is 'break into', but the noun is 'break-in' without 'into'.

Yeah, and we have other meanings as well that we can use 'break

into' for, kind of similar to 'eruption' that we were talking

about at the start, actually. So, we could say that last

night the Italian supporters 'broke into celebration'.

It means they started to celebrate very quickly. It happened like that.

Yeah and people can 'break into song' as well. They... if people are in a

good mood or something at a party, they might 'break into song'.

I'm sure there were a lot of Italians in Rome and all round Italy

'breaking into song' last night when they won the football, Neil.

Yes. Whereas here, there was total and utter silence.

Yeah. I went to bed straight afterwards actually.

OK. Let's get a summary:

OK. Tom, time now just to recap the vocabulary please.

Of course. Today's vocabulary:  

we have 'erupts' – expresses something suddenly and with force.

'Shoulders blame' – accepts responsibility.

And 'broke into' – entered without permission.

If you want to test yourself on the vocabulary,

there's a quiz on our website at bbclearningenglish.com.

And you can find us all over social media.

Thanks for joining us and goodbye.

Bye!