Sports Idioms in English

Hey, this is Alex, and welcome to this lesson on idioms.

Today we're going to look at sports idioms.

So we have five that we will look at and discuss today.

The first one is "to be ahead of the pack," "to cover all the bases," being the second

one.

Third, we have "to jump the gun."

What does that mean?

The fourth we have is "to be on the mark" or "to be off the mark."

And finally, the fifth and final one is "to come out of left field."

Okay, so let's look at them one by one.

So "ahead of the pack," okay, when you think of the word "pack," you think of a large group,

well, generally of wolves, actually, but think of a group of people in this case, okay?

So in a race, sometimes you have many, many people that are very, very close to each other,

but you always have that one person, not always, but sometimes, you have that one person who

is so far ahead of everyone else, okay, who has made more progress than his rivals or

other people in the same kind of field, okay?

So if you are ahead of the pack, it means you have made more progress or are ahead of

other people or other rivals.

So for example, we can say, "Sony is ahead of the pack in the field of electronics."

Okay?

We can talk about the 1980s music scene, and we can talk about Michael Jackson being ahead

of the pack of musical entertainers.

Okay, "covering all the bases."

To cover all the bases means to deal with every aspect of a particular field, a particular

area of interest that you're discussing, okay?

So if you listen to a lecture, and the lecture is an introduction to biology, for example,

and you walk out of the classroom, and you say, "Boy, the professor really covered all

the bases of biology.

He talked about everything related to biology.

He covered every single point," okay?

Okay, so let's look at the third idiom here, and that is "jump the gun."

So if you think about Olympic running, okay, and you think about the runners lining up

at the start line, and someone has to shoot a gun to begin the race for the people to

start running, okay?

If you jump the gun, it means you start before you're supposed to start, okay?

So you start at the incorrect time, at a time that is not appropriate, okay?

So you can say, "Boy, he really jumped the gun on buying that new laptop," meaning maybe

he didn't have the money to buy that new laptop.

He really jumped the gun.

He didn't buy it when, you know, he should have, or it wasn't an appropriate or good

time to buy the laptop, okay?

How about number four, "being on the mark," "being off the mark."

Now, these are very, very simple, actually.

They refer to statements that people make, usually.

So if you're on the mark about something, it means you are correct or accurate in saying

something, okay?

So if you're listening to a politician speak on television, and you think he is absolutely

correct about what he is saying about the economy or something like that, you can say,

"His statements are really on the mark.

He's telling the truth.

He's saying things that are accurate and correct."

To be off the mark is exactly the opposite.

So if you are listening to a politician, and you think that he is lying or he is not telling

the whole truth about something, you can say, "He is really off the mark."

He is not giving accurate information.

He is not telling the truth.

Those statements are off the mark.

Finally, we have, "out of left field."

So this is a baseball idiom, right?

So "out of left field" means to come from nowhere, almost, as a surprise.

So the car, again, if you're walking down the street, and you don't see a car, and it

comes, again, out of nowhere, this is another idiom.

This is a similar idiom to "out of nowhere."

You can say, "The car came out of left field."

It came from nowhere.

I didn't see it.

It was a big surprise.

Okay, so just to review, to be ahead of the pack means to have made more progress than

other people in your field, so to have made more progress than your rivals or other people.

The example we used was, "Sony is ahead of the pack in the field of electronics."

When you cover all the bases, it means that you talk about every detail related to a particular

field of interest.

So for example, "The biology professor covered all the bases of intro to biology."

When you jump the gun, you start sooner than you're supposed to, or you start at a time

that is not appropriate to start something.

Okay?

When you're on the mark, it means you're correct.

Someone is correct.

When you say someone is on the mark, they're on the mark.

That statement is on the mark.

They are absolutely correct.

One hundred percent.

Yes, I agree with that.

If you're off the mark, you're incorrect.

Okay?

So you can say, "They're really off the mark."

Those statements are inappropriate, incorrect.

They have nothing to do with the truth.

Finally, if something is out of left field, it means it has come as a surprise, out of

nowhere.

Okay?

So the car came out of left field.

Sometimes, if you're listening to a lecture, and a student says something very strange

or very surprising, you can say, "That comment came out of left field," or "That comment

was out of left field."

Okay, so hopefully I've covered all the bases of this lecture, and if you'd like to test

your understanding of these sports idioms, you can check out the quiz on www.engvid.com.

Thanks again for clicking, and take care.