Still under the impression of the Olympic Games, our spirits are running high and competitive. How do you say ‘natjecanje’ and ‘natječaj’ in English always seems to be a problem for many Croatian speakers. Competition is a situation in which people or organizations try to be more successful than others. Do you know that the price reduction of mobile phones is due to competition among suppliers? An organized event in which people or teams compete against each other is also a competition. The Olympic Games, held in Beijing this year, is an example of international sports competition.
Contest is a situation in which two or more people or groups are competing with each other, usually rated by judges. We are all familiar with beauty contests (pageants in the US), talent contests, etc. Lots of Croatian girls try to enter a beauty contest held in almost every small town in Croatia. Sometimes such contests are fair (when everyone has the same chance of winning), but they are often unequal (when one person has a much greater chance of winning) and close (when someone wins by only a very small amount).
A bid is an offer to pay a particular price for something. For example, people put in a bid for the house. At an auction, the person who places the highest bid for the painting, usually buys it. Companies can make a bid to buy another company, or launch a takeover bid. Tender is a formal statement of the price you would charge for doing a job or providing goods and services (bid in American English). You can ask different companies how much they will charge for doing a particular job, for instance you can put out to tender the contract for building the houses.
And now a word or two about winning and losing. We all like winners and champions, don’t we? You usually win (used without an object) or win something, e.g. a match/game, a competition/contest or a prize. Spain won the EURO 2008. Who did they beat in the finals, do you remember? They beat Germany. You usually beat someone in a match, or beat someone at tennis. But, who do you conquer then? Alexander the Great conquered half the world before he was 33. He conquered, not won or beat. He took land by force of arms.
