This week’s question comes from Hui Yao, who wants to know how to say 加油 in English.

Whether you like football, basketball or athletics, if you are a sports fan you will want to cheer on your team.

In Chinese, 加油 is the all-purpose chant which you can use for all sports.

But what is the best chant in English?

Of course you can’t translate 加油 literally into English as it would sound very strange to shout ‘add oil’ at a football match in Britain.

Actually there are a lot of different things you can chant to encourage your team.

Have a look at the list below:

Come on
Go for it
We normally use these phrases to encourage a team that is losing, or maybe when a team is just about to score.

Don’t give up
Keep going
These are both used to encourage a team or player that is losing energy.

Go, go, go!
This is also to encourage people, but is more used for individual athletes, especially racing events, than for team sports.

Thanks to Hui Yao for her question. If you have a question about the English language, send us an email to questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk. Your name and answer to the question could appear on our website.

---

Glossary 词汇

athletics
田径

sports fan
运动迷

cheer on
为…鼓气

all-purpose
通用的

a chant
有节奏的反复叫喊

encourage
鼓励

---