ESL go.com's NFL American football free online grammar and vocabulary class
In this class we're going to see how to use three important sports words: win, beat, lose, and record. Unfortunately,
my two favorite football teams, the Giants and the Jets, lost a lot of games in 2003. Here are the final scores of the New York Giants and New York Jets first three games of 2003.
| Game 1 | Giants 23 Rams 13 | Jets 13 Redskins 16 |
| Game 2 | Giants 32 Cowboys 35 | Jets 10 Dolphins 21 |
| Game 3 | Giants 24 Redskins 21 | Jets 16 Patriots 23 |
Record (noun), won and lost (past simple and past participles of win and lose)
A team's record is how many games they've won and how many they've lost (we say how many they've won first and how many they've lost second). As you can see, the Giants have a record of 2-1 (we say "2 and 1"), because they've won two games and lost only one. The other New York team, the Jets, have a record of 0-3. They haven't won any games.
Wins and losses (nouns)
We know that 'to win' and 'to lose' are verbs, but they can also be nouns. The Giants have won two games and lost one so they have two wins and one loss. The Jets have no wins and three losses.
Win and beat
It can be difficult to know when to use the verbs 'win' and 'beat' because they mean the same thing. Here's the secret: 'beat' goes with an object. 'Win' does not. For example, I can say, "In week one, the Giants won. They beat the St. Louis Rams." On the other hand 'lose' can be used with and without an object: "In week one, the Jets lost. They lost to the Washington Redskins.
Practice your English!
Type in beat, won, lost, or record. Use this information:
| Game 1 | Giants 23 Rams 13 | Jets 13 Redskins 16 |
| Game 2 | Giants 32 Cowboys 35 | Jets 10 Dolphins 21 |
| Game 3 | Giants 24 Redskins 21 | Jets 16 Patriots 23 |
You're now ready to talk about the record of your favorite sports team! Give it a try and see how it goes!
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