Hello and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast. My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 29, Day 5 of Your English Five a Day. This is the series where we aim to increase your active vocabulary by deep-diving into five items every day of the working week from Monday to Friday. So, let's start today's list with a phrasal verb, to sit out. To sit out. And usually, we separate this and say we sit something out. Sit, we spell S I T. Out, OUT. So to sit something out. If you sit something out, then it means you are not taking part in whatever it is. So, it's usually an activity, a game, or a dance. So, if I'm playing squash, like I regularly do, and I'm playing a social squash event where there are many matches, many games, many rounds; I might decide after a few rounds that I'm quite tired and I need to have a rest. So when my coach says:"Anna jump on court two." I might say,"Actually coach, I'm going to sit this one out. Can I sit this round out? Because I'm in need of a rest." So, to sit something out is to not take part. Here's another example,"I don't enjoy dancing, so I think I'll just sit this one out." Okay, next on the list is the verb twist. Twist. Now, I'm talking here specifically about an injury to twist. We spell it T W I S T. To twist is to injure a part of your body, usually a joint, or an ankle, or a knee. You might twist your wrist. These are the most common areas that you twist: wrist, ankles, knees. And it's when you are turning very suddenly and then you aggravate or upset or injure that joint, either you've pulled or torn or inflamed a muscle or a ligament or something like that. But to twist is to strain a joint through the act of twisting, which is why we say,"It's a twist.""I've twisted my ankle. I've twisted my wrist. Oh, I twisted my knee last week. It was terribly painful." Here's an example sentence,"I twisted my ankle while playing basketball and had to sit out for the rest of the game." Next on the list is an adjective. It's also slang and it's to describe yourself as being gutted. To be gutted. We spell this G U T T E D, to be gutted. I am gutted. If you say you're gutted, it means you are extremely disappointed or very, very sad about something. So, for example, if you are interviewing for a job role that you think you are perfect for and the interview goes really well, they invite you back for a second interview. And that's great news. You go to the second interview. It also goes really well. And you come away thinking,"This job is mine. I must have landed this role." But then you get the news that actually they decided to go with somebody else. You will be very sad. You might be a bit shocked because you really thought the job was yours and you'd be very disappointed. So, in that circumstance, you could say to a friend or a family member,"Oh, I'm absolutely gutted." So, gutted is something that you'd use more in an informal setting. Obviously, if it's formal, then you would say,"I'm extremely disappointed." But in a more relaxed situation, you can be open and say,"I'm gutted. I'm absolutely gutted." So, let me put it into a sentence,"I was gutted when I found out I didn't get the job I wanted. Now I have to start my search all over again." Next on the list is the phrasal verb face off. To face off. Face, F A C E. Off, O F F. To face off. This always makes me think of the film with, who is it? Nicolas Cage and John Travolta. Great film.'Face Off' it's called. But to face off with somebody is to meet someone that you're opposing, and to battle against them or to compete or to argue with them. So, if you're in a competitive environment, maybe you are playing darts and you're playing against another team and you're trying to win, then you are going to face off in the final. You're going to meet and compete. But sometimes you might be in the pub or in a bar having a nice drink with somebody and then a very drunk person bangs into you and you say,"Excuse me, be careful, please." And they start being aggressive towards you and shouting at you and calling you names and you respond in this instant. You are facing off with them. You are having an argument, you are almost face to face with each other, having a heated discussion. Here's an example sentence,"Two teams will face off in the championship game tomorrow, which side are you supporting?" Next on the list is a noun and it is tradition. Tradition. We spell this T R A D I T I O N. Tradition. A tradition is a belief or a way of acting that people have continued to follow for a very long time. So, we all have different levels of traditions, don't we? There are national traditions, the holidays that we celebrate, maybe the religion that we follow and the traditions that are associated with those religions. There are cultural traditions that we keep following for decades or for centuries even. And then we might even have our own smaller traditions, maybe traditions associated with your school, your college or university. Maybe there's a tradition within your sports club or within your household. Maybe your family has its own traditions that your grandparents and your great-grandparents used to follow and now you do with your parents and you will do with your children, and so on and so on. A tradition. Here's an example,"We have a tradition in our house; the birthday boy or girl gives their siblings an'unbirthday' present. That way, all the children have something to open and play with." What traditions do you have in your house? We've got quite a few traditions in our house. One tradition is that on New Year's Day, my family and I will usually go and start shopping for Christmas decorations, which is a little bit odd, but it's because there are often huge reductions in the price of beautiful decorations for the Christmas tree. And so, every year we go and pick something lovely in the sales and we add it to our decoration box as we pack our decorations away. And then the next year we have the fun of taking out the brand new decoration and putting it on the tree for the first time. So, that's a tradition that we started about five years ago and we hope to continue and maybe the boys will take on that tradition and do it with their children. Okay. So, that's our five for today. Let's do a quick recap. We started with the phrasal verb to sit something out, which means to not take part in an activity like a dance or a game or a physical activity, usually because you're tired or injured. Next, we had the verb twist relating to an injury, we usually twist our ankle or wrist by making a sudden turning motion. Then we had the adjective, also slang, to be gutted, which is to feel extremely disappointed and sad or shocked. Then we had the phrasal verb to face off, which is to meet an opposing person in a sporting event to compete or maybe in an argument. And then we had the noun tradition, which is a belief or a way of acting that people have done for a very long time. Okay, so let's now do this for pronunciation. Please repeat after me. To sit out. To sit out. Twist. Twist. To be gutted. To be gutted. To face off. To face off. Tradition. Tradition. Very good. Okay, let me test your memory. If I suddenly turn and in the act of turning, I hurt my ankle really badly, what verb could I use? I twist my ankle."Oh no, I've just twisted my ankle." Yes, and now because I've twisted my ankle, I can't take part in the next game, the next squash game. So, what phrasal verb will I have to use to tell my coach that I need to not take part? Sit out. Yes."Sorry, coach. I'm going to have to sit this one out because I've twisted my ankle." Now I'm actually really, really upset about this. In fact, when I find out how bad my injury is and I find out that I'm going to have to take several months of rest, I'm extremely disappointed. What adjective could I use here? Gutted. I am gutted. Not only did I have to sit out that one game because of my twisted ankle, I'm now going to have to sit out many games over the next few months because my ankle is twisted so badly. That it's going to take a long time to recover. But when I do come back, I will definitely take part in the championship game. I love the banter, I love the competition, I love it when teams get together and oppose each other when they meet and compete. What phrasal verb could I use here? Face off. Yes, I love it when opposing teams come together to face off in the championships. So, there is also an element to the championships that I love. It's something that we've done year after year. It used to happen before I joined the club and it's been happening for decades. What would I call this thing that I'm talking about is actually getting together for drinks after the match and having a karaoke session, but what would I call this activity that's been going on for decades? A tradition. Yes. This tradition is so much fun. It's something we've always done. And it's part of the reason why I love taking part in the championships because it means I get to enjoy this particular activity. So, to round that off, I twisted my ankle and had to sit out my squash match, which I was really gutted about. Actually, I found out I had to sit out for many months and I was completely gutted. But I did get back in time to take part in the championships and face off with our old sporting rivals and take part in our really fun tradition of drinks and karaoke at the end of the competition. Okay, so there was my off-the-cuff story. Now let's have a very well-prepared story. Listen out for these items in today's storytime. In the dim glow of the streetlights, Jamie dribbled the basketball with a rhythmic, almost hypnotic precision. The cold, damp air of the evening wrapped around him like a shroud, but he barely noticed. His focus was total, every sense attuned to the echo of the ball against the cracked tarmac. Around him, the estate slept, the usual cacophony of daytime noises now subdued into a nocturnal hush. He was gutted, truly, at the thought of sitting out the upcoming tournament. It was a twist of fate as cruel as the injury itself a twisted ankle sustained in a reckless moment of overconfidence. This tournament was more than just a game; it was a tradition in the neighbourhood, a rite of passage that he was desperate to be part of. His brother had won it five years ago, and now it was supposed to be his turn. Tomorrow, he was to face off against Matty Taylor, a formidable player who had the advantage of both height and experience. The thought gnawed at him. Would his absence tomorrow be the end of his aspirations or just another obstacle to overcome? Jamie shot a three-pointer, the ball arching beautifully through the air before swishing through the net without a hint of resistance. As he retrieved the ball, his mind replayed the countless stories of athletes who had risen through adversity. He knew he had to believe in something larger than the moment, larger than the injury his potential. He couldn't shake the feeling that this setback was just a part of his story, perhaps even a necessary one. With a determined nod to the silent houses, Jamie decided, he would not let this twist dictate his fate. And that brings us to the end of today's episode. I do hope you found today and this week useful. Until next time, take very good care and goodbye.