Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Underachieving


The country that gave us football, home of one of the most exciting soccer leagues in the world, England arrived at the World Cup ranked among the top 5 favorites to win. The drab and uninspiring performance they have put in so far however leaves little hope that they will even move on to the next stage
After a 1-1 draw with the U.S. and a scoreless draw with Algeria, the English team went from a sure bet to carry off the World Cup trophy to one of the most underachieving teams in the competition so far. It is very unlikely that anyone will ever be able to explain why this should be so.

The adjective underachieving is used to talk about someone, usually a student or athlete, who doesn’t perform as well or work as hard as they can.

The noun form of that adjective is underachievement, which is formed by the combination of the preposition ‘under’ and the noun ‘achievement’. As you may know, the noun ‘achievement’ translates in Portuguese as “realização”, “conquista”, “êxito” or “feito”.

This is to say that the English team has the potential to achieve a better level of performance, but when out on the pitch the players so far have proved to form an underachieving squad.

The verbal form is ‘to underachieve’, and the noun used to refer to the person that underachieves is ‘underachiever’. I can’t think of a single word in Portuguese that translates that idea, so I’ll leave the example sentences below without a version in Portuguese.

verb - to underachieve:

> Socioeconomic differences may help explain why some student groups underachieve in school.

noun - underachievement:

> The underachievement of gifted students is a big mystery.

adjective - underachieving:

> Brazilian singer Jorge Vercílio is considered by many to be an underachieving copy of singer-songwriter Djavan.

noun - underachiever:

> Some people believe that, at that price, the iPhone is an underachiever.



The opposite of the adjective underachieving is  – yes you guessed it right, overachieving. It is used to describe someone or something that does better than expected.

The noun form overachiever is used to refer to a person who performs better than expected, and sometimes feels unhappy if they don’t achieve everything they want. In a way, an overachiever is excessively and unhealthily dedicated to achieving success. To say that someone is an overachiever may imply that they desire more than is needed.

Here are examples using the respective forms of the verb to overachieve:

verb – to overachieve:

> Australia played fairly well and overachieved at the last World Cup. But they have been a disaster so far at this World Cup.

noun – overachievement:

> The fact that North Korea conceded only two goals against Brazil is considered by many as an overachievement.

adjective – overachieving:

> If Brazil wins this World Cup, it’ll have been the least talented and the most overachieving national team.

noun – an overachiever:

> She was an overachiever who would not get married until she found the perfect father for her babies. She died alone.


So England has been quite underachieving at this World Cup. What teams do you believe are the overachievers so far?

3 comments:

Wil said...

I've left a question at your soccer glossary. By the way, I don't remember if you mentioned "oitavas de final" there. And "quartas de final"? And "morte súbita" would be literally Sudden Death?

Eduardo de Araújo said...

Willie,

oitavas de final = round of 16

quartas de final -= quarterfinals

morte súbita = sudden death

I should have metioned such important expressions. Thank you for bringing them up!

Please check the glossary post for my answer to your question.

Serge said...

Those who might be new to soccer would definitely learn a lot not just from watching actual games, but from reading various soccer glossary as well.