Win, beat, lose

    Mid-August 2004 and the Olympics have now begun. Athletes from all over the world
    will be competing against each other and trying to win medals. Japan had an excellent start to the Olympics when the women's football (soccer) team played their first match. As you all know, the result was:

              Japan - 1, Sweden - 0.

    In the next section, let's look at different ways of expressing sports results.

    Japan - 1, Sweden - 0

    Here are some ways we can express the result of the Japan-Sweden match:

    WIN
    • Japan won.
    • Japan won the match.
    • Japan won by one goal to nil.
    • Japan won against Sweden.
       
    BEAT
    • Japan beat Sweden.
    • Japan beat Sweden one-nil.

    LOSE
    • Sweden lost.
    • Sweden lost the match.
    • Sweden lost one-nil to Japan.
          NOTES:
        (1)  Win and lose can be either transitive (他動詞 - Japan won the match), or     
              intransitive (自動詞 - Japan won). Beat is always transitive.
        (2)  You win a match, but you beat a team (See the next section for more details).
        (3)   When one team wins by a very big margin (e.g. 5-0), we can use a more  
               dramatic word than beat (e.g. Team A  hammered Team B).
        (4)   Finally, I hope my Swedish friends don't try to kill me for pasting the news of
               their defeat all over this page.

    Beat and Win

    You can win (or lose) things like:
    • a tennis match
    • a game of chess
    • a speaking contest
    • an election
    • a fight
    • an argument
    • a war

    You can also use win with words like:
    • an Olympic gold medal
    • a soccer cup
    • a prize
    • money (e.g. in a casino)

    You can use beat with words like:
    • a person
    • a team
    • your opponent
        You can also beat a  record (記録) or beat (somebody's) score. 
       (We can also say break a record).                    

    Exercise
    (Win- won-won; lose-lost-lost; beat-beat-beaten)

Use an appropriate form of win, lose or beat in the following:
    1. Mizuki Noguchi, Naoko Sakamoto and Reiko Tosa are all hoping to _____ a gold medal in the Marathon. However, they will have to _____ some strong runners like Paula Radcliffe from the UK and Catherine Ndereba from Kenya.
    2. In the Sydney Olympics, Ryoko Tamura  _____ Lioubov Brouletova and _____ the gold for Japan.
    3. The women's softball team reached the final in Sydney, but they _____ to the USA.
    4. Kosuke Kitajima might be able to _____  the 100 and 200 metres breaststroke, but he will find Brendan Hansen a hard man to _______.
    5. If Murofushi wants to set a new Olympic record in the hammer throw, he has to _____ 84.80 metres.
    6. Although the Japanese women's team ______ Sweden, the  men's  team ______ 4-3 by Paraguay.
    7. In 1956, Roger Bannister of Great Britain became the first person to _____ the four-minute mile.
    8. When Paula Radcliffe _____  the world record and came first in the 2002 Chicago Marathon, she _____ $250,000 plus a Volkswagen car.

    Click here to check your amswers.

    Click here if you want to try some of my other one-point lessons.

    © Robert E. Jones, 2004