Hockey is a winter sport played outdoors on ice. It’s similar to hockey and ice hockey, but the rules are different. The puck is smaller and lighter than a soccer ball, and its movements are governed by different set of rules. It’s played with a stick and a helmet. If you’re not familiar, you might be wondering how to pronounce it.
Hockey is also known as ice hockey or scish ice hockey, but these terms can also refer to the game itself. The terms are sometimes used interchangeably, especially in the US. People who play hockey often just call it hockey or ice hockey, depending on which one they mean.
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Hockey Basics
Hockey is a team game, where two teams compete head-to-head while trying to score goals by using a small puck that’s propelled through the air using a stick. It’s similar to soccer, but the players wear different equipment and play on a frozen surface. If you’re not familiar, here are the basics.
- Two teams of similarly sized players use small, hard, round balls to score goals by hitting the puck with a stick, usually using the heel of the hand to flick the puck into the net.
- There are six players on a team (three forwards, two midfielders, and one goalie).
- The goalie is the only member of the team who wears a helmet; the others are equipped with protective headwear.
- The puck is small and thin, usually made of vulcanized rubber with a hard black coating, though synthetic leather pucks are also used.
- Hockey is most popular in Canada and the United States, and is less popular in Europe and Oceania. The sport was invented in Canada in the 1800s and evolved from an indoor game, originally called shinny, that was played on ice. The first international game of ice hockey was played in Montreal in 1875. The sport gradually spread across the world, with the number of professional hockey teams almost doubling from the 1970s to the 2000s. However, over the past decade, the number of teams has decreased, as the economic effects of the 2008 financial crisis meant that many owners could no longer afford to field teams. The decrease in the number of players as a result of the pandemic has also made it harder for youngsters to grow into the sport professionally, creating a so-called generation gap between people interested in playing hockey and those who want to watch it.
The Pronunciation Of Hockey
Like many winter sports, the pronunciation of hockey can be difficult to learn. You’d think that since it’s played on ice, the sound would be similar to that of “skate,” but that’s not necessarily the case. Despite the similarity in sounds, the rules are different enough that you need to learn how to say it correctly. Here are some common pronunciation issues and how to fix them.
Nouns
One of the most common pronunciation mistakes at the beginning of words is the use of “on” instead of “to” when talking about the location of an event or action. For example, instead of saying, “The hockey game is on tomorrow night,” you should say, “The hockey game is to tomorrow night.” This is especially important with respect to time, as the rules dictate that players use particular words to communicate the times at which they will perform different actions. For example, a skater is allowed to move forwards, but only when a puck is in their zone. Before then, they are not allowed to move, as doing so would put them at a disadvantage. Similarly, a goalkeeper is not allowed to leave their area of the pitch (where they stand in relation to the center-spot of the rink while the whistle is blown), unless the puck is in their zone, or their line judge has given them permission to go after a loose puck.
Here are some more examples of common nouns with incorrect pronunciations:
- Ticket – Should be “ticket”
- Shirt – Should be “shirt”
- Jacket – Should be “jacket”
- Buckle – Should be “buckle”
- Mouthguard – Should be “mouthguard”
- Goalpost – Should be “goalpost”
Verbs
Another common mistake among non-native speakers is using the irregular past tense rather than the regular past tense when talking about actions in the past. For example, you might say, “We skated yesterday,” instead of “Skated yesterday.” Though you would say “He skated” to describe the current activity of a person, you would use the past tense to talk about something that happened in the past.
Pronunciation affects not only the way words are said, but also the intonation used when speaking. The position of your voice determines whether a word is spoken with a high or low tone. Do not worry, this is something that you can easily learn. An easy way to remember is to think of songs or poems you’ve heard before and how the words are pronounced. Here are some examples of verbs with incorrect pronunciations:
- Lift – Should be “lifted” or “raised”
- Throw – Should be “threw” or “cast”
- Scared – Should be “scarred” or “scared”
- Lose – Should be “lost” or “dropped”
Adjectives
When applying adjectives to nouns, it’s important to determine whether you are describing a quality or state of something. For example, you might say that someone is a “good skater,” but if you want to talk about their speed, you can say that they are a “fast skater.” Similarly, you may want to say that a book is “interesting” or that it is “fascinating,” but to describe something as “beautiful” or “amazing,” you’d use an adjective of admiration, such as “beautiful” or “amazing.”
You can also use an adjective to modify a verb, but you need to use a different type of adjective. For example, you may want to say that someone is “playing hard,” but if you want to talk about how they are playing, you can say that they are “contesting a puck.” To play it safe, always use an adjective when modifying a verb or adjective.
Here are some more examples of adjectives and their incorrect pronunciations:
- Bad – Should be “bad”
- Good – Should be “good”
- Black – Should be “black”
- White – Should be “white”
- Bold – Should be “bold”
- Italic – Should be “italic” or “cursive”
Numbers
Like with many other languages, English has different words for different numbers. For example, five is spelled out as “five,” but it is pronounced as “fiver.” To make things a little easier for non-native speakers, here are some common numbers with incorrect pronunciations:
- One – Should be “on”
- Two – Should be “to”
- Three – Should be “threesome” or “thriller”
- Four – Should be “for”
- Five – Should be “fiver”
Pronunciation Guide
Tired of listening to English pronunciation rules? Want to know how to say hockey correctly? Here’s a quick and easy guide that will help get you started. From here, you can also find more information about hockey, its history, and the various terms used by the hockey community. Don’t worry, we’ve also included a glossary of terms at the end.