Hello and welcome to News Review from BBC Learning English.
I'm Neil. Joining me is Catherine. Hi Catherine.
Hello Neil. Hello everybody. So, the Euros 2020 football
tournament kicked off this weekend and there were shocking
scenes as Danish player Christian Eriksen collapsed on the field.
If you would like to test yourself on any of the vocabulary
you hear on this programme, there's a quiz
on our website at bbclearningenglish.com.
Now, let's find out more about the story from this BBC News report:
So, Danish footballer Christian Eriksen collapsed on the football
field just before half-time. Many of his fellow players were in tears,
absolutely shocked at what was happening.
He was treated on the football pitch and then taken to hospital.
He is recovering now and the Danish team doctor said he had actually
suffered a cardiac arrest – that's a heart attack to you and me.
So, very serious situation.
Yeah, he is fortunately recovering now
and the game actually went on, didn't it Catherine?
Yes, it did. It was abandoned temporarily so they stopped playing,
but once all the players realised or were told that he was awake,
they decided to continue the game,
which was eventually won by Finland by one goal to nil.
OK. Well, you've been looking around the various headlines about this story
and you've picked out three really interesting words and expressions.
What have you got?
Yes, today we are looking at: 'stable','heartfelt' and 'eye-opening'.
'Stable', 'heartfelt' and 'eye-opening'. So,
let's start with your first headline, with that word 'stable', please.
Yes, we're at Sky first of all – the headline:
'Stable' – fixed; not likely to change.
Yes, we have an adjective here. It's spelt S-T-A-B-L-E
and it refers to physical things,
which are fixed in position and they don't move.
So, for example, Neil, your camera is not wobbling at the moment, is it?
You've got a very, very secure, still picture.
Yes, I'm using a tripod to make sure that the pictures here are 'stable'.
If I didn't have it, it would wobble. I'm now wobbling my tripod.
Right. That's very 'unstable'. You've got an 'unstable' picture there.
Yes, I have, yeah. So, 'stable' is used to talk about
physical things like this tripod, but we can also use it, like many...
like many items of vocabulary, in figurative way.
Yes, absolutely. So, 'stable' here is referring to his physical
condition – his medical condition – saying that if something's...
if you're 'stable' medically, it means you are not changing:
you're not getting worse. You're probably not getting better,
but it means that your condition is not changing so it's not as
worrying as when your condition is critical or deteriorating.
It basically means very little change.
Yeah. And we can use it to talk about, sort of, situations in general.
For example, the economy can be described as 'stable'.
Yes, when there's not great periods of economic change, where investments
aren't changing too much, things aren't going up and down too much,
we can say: 'It's stable.' You can talk about other things, like...
you can be in a 'stable relationship'.
That means the kind of relationship where there isn't lots of drama,
you're not arguing and breaking up and getting back together;
you just have a strong, solid, reliable relationship.
Yeah. And you've already mentioned it,
but the negative of 'stable' is 'unstable'.
That's right, yes. So, if you're in an 'unstable relationship',
you're doing lots of breaking up and arguing.
If the economy is 'unstable',
it means there's lots of ups and downs with the economic situation.
Now, like with most words in most languages, there are different
versions of the word. We've been looking at the adjective...
we've been looking at the adjective.
We can also turn this into a noun: 'stability'.
Yes, we can... yeah. So, that would be 'stability'.
That's S-T-A-B-I-L-I-T-Y
and the negative of that is 'instability',
so starting with an 'in-', the prefix 'in-',
is the opposite of 'stability' as a noun.
So, we've got 'unstable', but 'instability'.
Yes! Different prefix there: from 'un-' to 'in-'.
And it gets worse, I'm afraid...
I'm afraid it does, yeah.
...because the verb form of this word 'stable' is 'stabilise'.
Yes. And the opposite of that is...?
'Destabilise'. Yeah.
So, we've got all the different prefixes: we've got 'unstable',
'instability' and 'destabilise'. And just to make it slightly more
complicated, there are two ways to say... to spell 'stabilise'.
If you're here in the UK, you spell it with an 's' in the middle.
If you're speaking American English, it's with a 'z'.
Yeah. I would like to apologise on behalf of the English language
for the complicated collection of prefixes connected to this word.
Yeah... sorry everyone.
Let's get a summary:
If you are interested in stories about football,
we have a really interesting one about the European Super League.
That didn't go very well, did it Catherine?
No, didn't last long at all.
But you can find out what happened by clicking the link.
OK. Let's have a look at your next headline.
Yes, in the UK with Hello and the headline:
'Heartfelt' – sincere.
Yes, we've got two words here: H-E-A-R-T.
The second word: 'felt' – F-E-L-T.
But we put them together without a space and we have one word:
'heartfelt'. Now, the meaning of this word is kind of,
very much related to the two words that it's made of. 'Felt' – if you
'feel' something in your 'heart', we're talking about emotions.
So, thinking of the heart as a place where you feel love, or happiness,
or grief, pain – all of those emotional things – 'heartfelt'
means it's very strongly felt: a strong emotion, a deep feeling.
So, we often use the word 'heartfelt' as an adjective
to describe a noun such as, in here, a statement.
A 'heartfelt statement' means a really deeply emotional statement.
Or we can talk about 'heartfelt apologies',
when you say you're sorry. and you really, really mean it.
Yeah. You often hear a 'heartfelt speech' at a wedding.
You do, yes. Yes, when they're... when the groom's kind of saying
how much he loves his wife and he's crying with emotion.
Yeah, you can say: 'That's a heartfelt speech.'
Yeah. And just to say again,
we're talking about 'heart' in the poetic sense:
we know this is a story about an illness
and somebody's heart – the physical organ, the heart –
but I don't think there's a connection here in this headline.
No, I think it's just a coincidence.
Yeah. OK. Let's get a summary:
OK. How about this for 'heartfelt'! We have a story about a TV producer,
who proposed to his girlfriend live on TV at the Emmys.
What do our viewers have to do, Catherine?
Just click the link down there and you'll go straight to the show.
OK. Let's have a look at our next headline please.
Yeah. Next off, we're at givemesport.com – the headline:
'Eye-opening' – revealing in a surprising way.
Yes. Another two-word expression.
This time the two words are joined together with a hyphen – a little,
short line between both words. The first part is 'eye' – E-Y-E.
The second word: 'opening' – O-P-E-N-I-N-G.
If something is 'eye-opening', it surprises you because you
learn something you didn't know before – often something that's
quite unexpected, or impressive even.
Yeah. And it's just another example of how figurative the language is
that we use. You know, if you want to see something better, what do you do?
You 'open' your 'eyes'... really wide.
Yeah... open your eyes wide.
Open... yes. So, that's not really what it means here, but it does
have a kind of connection. It's the idea of making you surprised,
making you kind of wonder, giving you some amazement: impressive.
So, if you watch a TV programme – you know
those nature documentaries, Neil? Yeah.
Where you watch something about, like, a little spider that
you never even think of, and then you discover this spider has this amazing
world of all these wonderful things it can do in its lifetime: you know,
the trials and difficulties it has, and the way it overcomes them.
Those documentaries can be really 'eye-opening'
because they teach you things you didn't know.
Yeah, absolutely. Sometimes you hear about someone
who spent an evening in an Accident and Emergency ward in a hospital.
It's a real 'eye-opener' for them.
Yes. Nice noun phrase there, yeah. If something is an 'eye-opener',
it teaches you or surprises you with things you didn't know previously.
And you're right – the word 'real' often comes with 'eye-opener':
a 'real eye-opener'.
OK. Well, let's get a summary of that:
Time now for a recap of our vocabulary please, Catherine.
Yes, we started with 'stable', which means fixed; not likely to change.
Then we had 'heartfelt', meaning sincere.
And we finished with 'eye-opening' – revealing in a surprising way.
Do not forget to test yourself on the vocabulary;
there's a quiz on our website bbclearningenglish.com.
And we are all over social media –
just look for us. Thanks for joining us and see you next time.
Goodbye. Bye!