In the World Cup spirit

Hi. How are you? This is Guilherme back with a brand new episode of the Inglês Diário podcast. Hope you are all doing great today. So, guys... the World Cup has already started, and I couldn't be more excited. Are you watching the matches? I already bought my snacks, I've got my Brazil's jersey ready... I am completely in the World Cup spirit.

Since we are all breathing soccer right now, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to teach you two expressions that come straight from the soccer field, but that native speakers use all the time in everyday life and, especially, at work.

So, think about the very first second of a soccer match. The referee blows the whistle, and a player hits the ball to officially start the game, right? That action is called the kick off. Kick off.

In soccer, it literally means the start of the match. But in everyday English, we use "kick off" as a phrasal verb to talk about starting absolutely anything. If you have a meeting at work, your boss might sit down and say, "Alright everyone, let's kick off the meeting." It simply means, let's start the meeting. If you are throwing a birthday party, you can say, "We are going to kick off the party at 8 PM." You can kick off a new project, kick off a marketing campaign, or kick off a weekend trip. It just means to begin something, usually an event or a collaborative effort.

Now, once the game kicks off, the ball is finally moving on the grass, right? The players are passing it around, the action is happening. That brings us to our second expression: get the ball rolling.

Imagine a heavy ball just sitting there on the ground. It takes a little bit of energy to push it and make it start moving. But once it starts rolling, it’s much easier to keep it going. That's exactly the idea here. To get the ball rolling means to do something to begin a process or a project. It’s that initial push you need to start making progress.

Let's say you and your friends want to plan a trip to the beach for the end of the year. Everyone thinks it's a great idea, but nobody is actually doing anything about it. You could say, "Guys, we need to rent a house soon. I'm going to create a WhatsApp group to get the ball rolling." You are taking the very first practical step to make the plan happen. Or at work, you might say, "I'll send an email to the client today just to get the ball rolling."

So, the World Cup is kicking off tomorrow, and all the teams are finally ready to get the ball rolling!

My question for you today is: What is something in your life right now that you need to get the ball rolling on? Do you need to get the ball rolling on your English studies? On planning your next vacation? Or maybe on starting a new diet?

Leave a comment. Enjoy the World Cup games, and I'll see you next time. Bye!

Key vocabulary

Kick off: começar algo

Get the ball rolling: fazer a coisa andar, dar início