BBC Learning English - The English We Speak / Fever pitch

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Introduction

The men’s football World Cup is coming, and excitement has reached fever pitch! It’s an expression used to describe a state of high emotion, and because it’s got the word ‘pitch’ in it, it’s often associated with football.

Transcript

Jiaying
Hello and welcome to The English We Speak with me Jiaying...

Neil
… and me, Neil.

Jiaying
You look rather excited, Neil?

Neil
Of course I am. The football World Cup is about to start! Excitement has reached fever pitch.

Jiaying
Well that doesn’t sound very good. The last thing we need at the World Cup is fever on the pitch!

Neil
Don’t worry, Jiaying, there’s no actual fever on the football pitch. No one is ill! ‘Fever pitch’ is just an expression that means there are high levels of excitement.

Jiaying
Thank goodness for that. Let’s hear some examples.

Examples

I was at the school sports day and excitement was at fever pitch. The kids were going crazy supporting their classmates!

Criticism of the company CEO was at fever pitch. The staff were really unhappy.

Anger reached fever pitch after the referee said it wasn’t a goal.

Jiaying
This is The English We Speak from BBC Learning English. We’re talking about the expression ‘fever pitch’, which means a state of high emotion.

Neil
As you heard in the examples, it’s not just excitement that can be at fever pitch. It can be any strong emotion, such as anger or criticism.

Jiaying
That’s right. And we often use it with ‘reach’ or the verb ‘to be’ plus ‘at’ – so, ‘excitement reached fever pitch’, or ‘anger was at fever pitch’.

Neil
And one last point – it’s not really a football expression, but because it contains the word ‘pitch’ it’s often used when describing football. Right, can I carry on getting excited about the World Cup now?

Jiaying
Yes, and if England or Wales do well, excitement really will be at fever pitch in the UK. Bye!

Neil
Bye!

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