Sports: Expressing likes, dislikes and preferences

Hello!  In this unit, we are going to learn how to talk about sports, and how to express likes, dislikes and preferences.

1- Vocabulary: Sports

1.1- Learning sports

Look at the pictures below that illustrate different sports. 

1. This sport is called table tennis.

Example: There are two people playing table tennis.

 

2. This sport is called tennis.

Example: This girl likes playing tennis. 

 

3. This sport is football.  

 

Example: This boy likes playing football.

 

4. This is basketball.

 

Example: You need a ball to play basketball. 

 

5. This is volleyball.

 

6. This sport is called hockey.

 

Example: We can see two people playing hockey.

 

7. This is a swimming.

 

Example: You can go swimming in a swimming pool.

 

8. This is a running.

 

Example: In this picture there are three people running a marathon.

 

9.  This is skateboarding.
 

 

Example: This boy is good at skateboarding.

 

10.  This is gymnastics.

 

Example: This girl can do gymnastics.

 

11.  This is rollerskate.

 

Example: This boy can rollerskate.
 

 

1.2- Grammar snack on verb collocations

Let´s see which verbs we need to talk about different sports.

We need to use the verbs go, play or do depending on the sport we talk about. 

We use:

• Play for sports that need a ball or a team.  
• Do for individual sports.  
• Go for the activities that end in –ing.

 

Examples:

• I play tennis (I need a ball to play tennis).
• I do yoga (I do it on my own, not in a team).
• I go swimming (Swimming ends with –ing).
   

 

Play Sports that need a ball or a team	Go Activities that end in –ing.	Do  Individual sports
Football Tennis Volleyball	Swimming Skateboarding Roller-skating	Yoga Karate Taekwondo

 

1.3- Over to you!

A. Work on the following game to match the names of the sports with the correct pictures.

 

B. Which verb should I use with each sport?  Play this game to practice. You have to choose the correct verb.

 

2- Expressing likes – dislikes and preferences

2.1- Expressing likes and dislikes

Let´s see how to express your feelings when you like somethings.

We use:

• Like when we enjoy something, for example: I like pizza.
• Dislike or don´t like when we do not enjoy something, for example food or an activity.
• Love when you like something very much.
• Hate when you dislike something very much.

Look at the char below.

Like	Love	Don’t like / dislike	Hate

Examples:

• I like pizza but I dislike olives.
• I hate football. I never play it or watch it on TV.
• I love ice creams. I always have an ice cream at the weekend.

 

2.2- Expressing preferences

When you want to express preferences, you need the verb “prefer”.

Example: I like both chocolate and vanilla ice cream but I prefer chocolate.  

That means I like chocolate better than vanilla.

 

2.3- Asking about likes, dislikes and preferences

To ask about likes, dislikes and preferences we use the Simple Present Tense. Remember we need:

• The Auxiliary “Do” or “Does” to make questions.  
• The Auxiliary “don´t” or “doesn’t” to make negative sentences.
• To add “s” or “es” to verb in the third person singular when the sentence is affirmative. 

Look at the chart below.

 

	Expressing likes and dislikes	Expressing preference
Affirmative	I like tennis. She likes volleyball.	I prefer tennis to volleyball. She prefers volleyball to tennis.
Interrogative	Do  you like football? Does he like skateboarding?	Do you prefer football or tennis? Does he prefer skateboarding or table tennis?
Negative	We don´t like gymnastics. She doesn´t like basketball.	———————————

 

2.4- Let’s have some practice about likes and dislikes

Look at the chart below and write positive and negative sentences about what these children like.  
 

Name
Peter
Lisa
Ben
Matt
Sarah
Tom and Paul

 

Example:

Peter loves rollerblading, he likes tennis but he doesn´t like skateboarding and he hates gymnastics.

 

2.5- Now, how about doing some practice on expressing preferences?

Remember 

• We use “prefer” to express which of all the activities we like better.
• We conjugate prefer like any other verb in the Simple Present Tense $\to$ We add “s” or “es” for the 3rd person singular (he-she-it).
• When the sentence is affirmative, we use the preposition “to.” to join the two options.
• To make questions we use the auxiliary “Do” or “Does” for the 3rd person singular (he-she-it) and we use the connector “or” to join the two options.

 

Examples:

He likes volleyball and he loves tennis. He prefers tennis to volleyball. (Affirmative)

I like basketball and I love swimming. I prefer swimming to basketball. (Affirmative)

Do you prefer football or table tennis? (Question)

Does he prefer skateboarding or roller-skating? (Question)

 

2.6- How about doing some practice?

Look at the pictures below and write some sentences using “prefer”. Remember you need to conjugate the verb depending on the subject, the person who does the action.

For example, we say “I prefer …” but we say “He prefers …”

 

Name
Susan
Mary
Paul and Matt
Jenny
Kevin
Andrew and Lisa

 

Example: Susan prefers football to swimming

Now, let´s begin with some help:

1) Mary prefers ____________________ to __________________.

2) Paul and Matt prefer ____________________ to __________________.

 

Can you try to complete the other sentences on your own?

3) Jenny _____________________________________________________.

4) Kevin _____________________________________________________.

5) Andrew and Lisa ____________________________________________.