10 Common English Expressions from Sports

Hi.

Welcome to engVid.

I'm Adam.

In today's video, I want to talk to you about some everyday expressions that are used or

that come from the world of sports.

Okay?

Now, these are especially common in the States.

If you're learning American English, this is very important for you to understand.

In America, sports are a very big part of everyday life, and a lot of the words from

sports make their way into everyday conversations, so I'm going to show you ten expressions and

words from sports and what they actually mean and how they're actually used in everyday

conversation.

Okay?

And they could be in all types of situations as well.

So I'm going to say...

We're going to start with "to knock it out of the park" or "to hit it out of the park".

This comes from baseball, okay?

And baseball is a very popular sport in America.

It's called America's favorite pastime.

America's favorite pastime is baseball.

So "to knock it out of the park", again, when we talk about park, we're talking about the

baseball field.

We call it the ballpark.

This is where they play baseball.

So "to knock it out" means to get a home run.

A home run means you can go all around the bases and score, and all the players on the

bases in front of you can also score.

So "to knock it out of the park" means to be very successful, okay?

So my friend went for an audition.

She's a singer, and she was trying to join a Broadway performance as a singer.

So she went for an audition, okay?

So she went to try out, and then after the audition I met her and I go, "Okay, how was

your audition?

How did you do?"

"Oh, I think I knocked it out of the park.

They're going to call me back for a second audition."

So "I hit it out of the park" means I did it very, very well, very successful, very

good performance, okay?

From baseball.

"To strike out" also from baseball, okay?

And "to strike out" is the opposite, it means to fail.

So when you think about a baseball player, he's at the plate and here comes the pitch,

swing, miss, swing, miss, swing, miss, three strikes, and he's out.

He goes back to sit down, the next player comes up, so he failed.

So "to strike out", I guess I should put "to" because these are verbs, you know, all "to's".

So "to strike out" means to fail.

So now you think, I'm at a bar with my friend, okay?

A lot of examples are in bars, I'm at a bar with my friend and he sees a girl on the other

side of the bar that he really is attracted to.

So I said, you know, "Go ask her for a drink", or if she wants a drink.

So he goes over, and a minute later he comes back and I say to him, "You struck out, huh?"

He goes, "Yeah."

Or, "How did you do?"

"Oh, I struck out", so the past tense.

So "struck out" means failed, didn't succeed in what he was going to do, also from baseball.

But again, used in everyday conversations.

"To take a rain check", again, I have a lot of baseball ones here today.

"To take a rain check", so now, if you buy a ticket to a baseball game and you go to

a ballpark that doesn't have a roof, it's not covered, it's not a dome.

So if you go to the baseball game and it starts to rain, if it rains heavily enough and long

enough, they cancel the game.

But does that mean that you lose your ticket?

No.

What you do get is a rain check, okay?

They will play this game at a future date, and you can use this rain check to get into

that game or to get into another game because you paid for it.

You paid for a full game, you will get a full game.

If you couldn't watch the game because of the rain, you will get a rain check, you will

use it another time.

So my friend asks me to go out for dinner, and I said, "No, I can't.

I'm really busy tonight, but I really want to go out with you.

Can I take a rain check?"

Means can we do it another time?

Yes, I want to go out with you, I can't today.

I will take that invitation and use it another time, just like I could go watch the baseball

game another time, okay?

To cover all the bases, still working on baseball here.

So again, you have a diamond, you have home plate, first base, second base, third base.

So if it's late in the game, the score is very close or tied, the players, the defending

players will come closer and they will cover all the bases to make sure that the other

team can't score.

So if you're covering all the bases, means you're looking at every possible angle and

you're making sure that nothing can go wrong, okay?

I have a company and I'm trying - I'm entertaining a possible client, and I want this meeting

or this visit to be perfect.

So I make sure that my staff covers all the bases.

They know where to take the client to eat, where to take the client sightseeing, what

the client likes, what the client doesn't like, to make sure that the visit is perfect.

So I make sure that we covered all the bases so nothing can go wrong.

If you covered all the bases, nothing should go wrong, okay?

To make a pit stop, this comes from auto racing.

So you have a track, okay, and the cars just go round and round and round and round, but

these are very big machines, they're using a lot of energy and a lot of power, and they

have tires that eventually wear out.

So after a few laps of the track, they have to come in, so you have - here's your track,

and then you have a little spot where they come in, they get gas, they get new tires,

they take a drink, and they keep going.

So this area is called the pit stop.

So whenever you need to take a little break from something, especially if you need to

go to the washroom, you need to make a pit stop, okay?

These days it's most commonly used to mean I need to go to the washroom, I need to make

a pit stop, I need to go use the washroom, and then we'll continue with our thing.

Or I just need to make a - take a short break and go somewhere and do something, and I'll

be right back and we'll continue, okay?

So here are five, let's look at five more.

Okay, we're going to keep going, different sports, different words, one more baseball,

one anyway.

So quarterback, I'm sure a lot of you have heard this word.

This could be a noun or a verb.

Now, a quarterback is from American football.

The quarterback is the one who takes the ball and throws it, or runs with it, or hands it

off to somebody.

So in essence, this is the person who is controlling the play for the offense, for the team that

has the ball.

To quarterback means to take charge, to lead, to control.

So basically, leader as a noun, to lead as a verb, right?

So I have a very important meeting with a client next week, and I know that I need the

best person in charge of the meeting to make sure that we get the contract.

So I choose my top salesperson to quarterback the meeting, okay?

To be in charge, make sure everybody knows what they have to do, do all the talking,

take control, get the sale.

Again, very common word, very common situation in the States.

Full court press, this comes from basketball.

So, full court press is one of the defensive styles in basketball where you just score

your basket, the other team gets it on their end line, and all the team, all the defensive

team covers the entire court and covers every player to make it very difficult for them

to move, okay?

So basically, press basically means pressure.

So full court press, or to apply a full court press, means to apply a lot of pressure, okay?

To make the other side or the other team make a mistake or give up the ball.

And again, you can use this in any situation, military, political, business, social.

So when you are in a campaign for an election, you want to become president, you want to

attack your opponent by applying a full court press, making sure that you cover everything

they say, everywhere they go.

You have cameras to basically force them into making a mistake, okay?

So one candidate is applying a full court press against the other candidate, okay?

To throw someone a curveball, so we're back to baseball.

So a curveball is a type of pitch, so you have the pitcher, and there's the hitter with

the bat.

So the pitcher throws the ball.

Now, a curveball basically goes, travels this way, and like, let's say here's the batter,

and no, I'm not a good artist, but that's not what we're here for.

Oh, sorry, let me get a bit higher than...

The ball comes like this and then drops, or a breaking ball, but mostly it's a curveball.

It curves down.

So the batter, he thinks he's about to hit it, and then the ball drops and he's all confused

and he doesn't know what to do, right?

So if you throw someone a curveball, you give them a situation that is very difficult to

handle or you put them in a situation where they weren't expecting what was happening,

and then they make a mistake or they get into trouble.

Now, you can say this even about a friend or a business associate.

I was going to go, I was going to meet my client, I was going to get the sale, but then

my competitor threw me a curveball by giving them a cheaper price and I couldn't compete

and we lost the contract, whatever, okay?

A curveball can be any situation that you weren't expecting and that created problems

for you, that was difficult to handle.

Step up, or in the full expression is step up to the plate, again, from baseball.

So here's the plate, so where the person is standing, this is the plate, okay?

When you step up, you take responsibility, okay?

Or you face the difficult situation.

You don't run away, it's the opposite.

So you step up to the plate means you take your turn or you take your responsibility,

and again, any situation.

So there's going to be a debate in the school, and everybody's a little bit afraid of the

other team because they're much better, but Bill decided he's going to step up to the

plate and he's going to go do what needs to be done.

And on the sidelines, so now we're back to American football, I forgot to mention that

before.

American football.

Now, this is the field, okay, here's your end zones, and here's your center.

On the side, these are the sidelines.

One team stands here, the other team stands here, that's the sidelines.

If you're on the sidelines, it means you're not involved in the action.

If you've been relegated to the sidelines, it means you've been made unimportant, you've

been made redundant, okay?

So the leader of the negotiating team has been relegated to the sidelines because he

wasn't doing a good job, management sent somebody else to take over and hopefully do a better

job.

So, relegated to the sidelines means you can sit and watch, you can't participate.

Now, that's a lot of information to take in, I understand, but keep in mind, if you want

to learn real English, you have to learn the culture.

Language and culture are very much tied together.

Even if you heard correctly what people are saying, if you don't know what these expressions

mean because you don't really know much about American sports, you're going to have a hard

time understanding things, the context or the substance of the conversation.

Learn sports.

If you're going to America, take the expressions, learn what they mean, they're going to be

used in a lot of different situations, okay?

If you want to make sure you understand these, go to www.engvid.com, there's a quiz you can

practice using these expressions.

If you have any questions, please ask me in the forum there at www.engvid.com.

Please subscribe to my YouTube channel, and I'll give you some more good videos about

vocab and expressions, and I'll see you again soon.

Bye.