{"id":17151,"date":"2019-02-16T09:00:44","date_gmt":"2019-02-16T14:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/?p=17151"},"modified":"2019-02-16T14:06:48","modified_gmt":"2019-02-16T19:06:48","slug":"english-phrase-of-the-day-move-the-goalposts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/english-phrase-of-the-day-move-the-goalposts\/","title":{"rendered":"English phrase of the day: Move the goalposts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/m5jP5hIUNSg?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><br \/>\nHi everyone! I heard today\u2019s phrase of the day when a woman was complaining about a difficult project at work. She\u2019s a graphic designer and she was trying to design a website for a client, but the client kept <strong>moving the goalposts<\/strong>, so the project was never finished and the client was never satisfied.<\/p>\n<p>To <strong>move the goalposts<\/strong> means to change the rules, conditions, or objectives in a way that makes them more difficult to reach the goal. Imagine a soccer game where the players were trying to score a goal, but someone kept moving the goal side to side, or further away -that would certainly make it a lot harder to get the ball in the goal!<\/p>\n<p>In the case of the graphic designer and her client, the client moving the goalposts might mean the client kept changing their mind, or requesting extra features, so that it was hard for the graphic designer to actually complete the project.<\/p>\n<p>Moving the goalposts is not a good thing; it\u2019s considered rather unfair or even corrupt. Let\u2019s say you\u2019ve been working at a company for 4 years, and your supervisor said you\u2019d be promoted at 5 years. But then when you reach 5 years, your supervisor changes the conditions and says you also need to complete an advanced training to get the promotion. After you complete the advanced training, the supervisor says you\u2019re not quite productive enough to be promoted, and you need to produce 20% more. The supervisor is moving the goalposts -changing the conditions for receiving the promotion -and you\u2019d probably be pretty frustrated by this.<\/p>\n<p>Can you think of an example where you\u2019ve seen a person, company, or government move the goalposts, changing the rules or requirements and making things more difficult?<\/p>\n<p>Thanks for watching today\u2019s phrase of the day, and I\u2019ll be back tomorrow with another one!<\/p>\n<div class=\"alert\">\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Learn phrases and expressions to improve your spoken English!<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/espressoenglish.lpages.co\/everyday-english-speaking-course\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-7558\" src=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/eesc-1-2.png\" alt=\"Everyday English Speaking Course\" width=\"486\" height=\"344\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff\"><a class=\"elementor-button rounded large blue\" style=\"color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/espressoenglish.lpages.co\/everyday-english-speaking-course\/\"><strong>Learn more about the Speaking Courses<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hi everyone! I heard today\u2019s phrase of the day when a woman was complaining about a difficult project at work. She\u2019s a graphic designer and she was trying to design a website for a client, but the client kept moving the goalposts, so the project was never finished and the client was never satisfied. To [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19285,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-speaking"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>English phrase of the day: Move the goalposts - Espresso English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hi everyone! I heard today\u2019s phrase of the day when a woman was complaining about a difficult project at work. She\u2019s a graphic designer and she was trying\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/english-phrase-of-the-day-move-the-goalposts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"English phrase of the day: Move the goalposts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hi everyone! I heard today\u2019s phrase of the day when a woman was complaining about a difficult project at work. She\u2019s a graphic designer and she was trying\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/english-phrase-of-the-day-move-the-goalposts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Espresso English\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-02-16T14:00:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-02-16T19:06:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/eesc-1-2.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"betsy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"betsy\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/english-phrase-of-the-day-move-the-goalposts\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/english-phrase-of-the-day-move-the-goalposts\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"betsy\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/#\/schema\/person\/d3d00cdd9aaf11f966a1b546b14544f2\"},\"headline\":\"English phrase of the day: Move the goalposts\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-02-16T14:00:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-02-16T19:06:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/english-phrase-of-the-day-move-the-goalposts\/\"},\"wordCount\":339,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/english-phrase-of-the-day-move-the-goalposts\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/eesc-1-2.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Speaking\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/english-phrase-of-the-day-move-the-goalposts\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/english-phrase-of-the-day-move-the-goalposts\/\",\"name\":\"English phrase of the day: Move the goalposts - Espresso English\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/english-phrase-of-the-day-move-the-goalposts\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/english-phrase-of-the-day-move-the-goalposts\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/eesc-1-2.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-02-16T14:00:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-02-16T19:06:48+00:00\",\"description\":\"Hi everyone! 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