Baseball is officially the national sport in the US.
It’s called “the national pastime”,
and we call the baseball championship “The World Series”
even if only Americans play.
Baseball has certainly given American English a lot of idiomatic expressions.
They’re so common, that we don’t even think about them as
special expressions when we use them.
I’m Christina and you’re watching Speak Better, Feel Great TV.
The place to boost your English and boost your career.
In this video, you’re going to learn
4 common baseball idioms Americans use
everyday in business.
Ya ready?
everybody knows what it means to strike out right ?
No
everybody doesn't know what that means
Here are the 4 baseball-inspired idioms that you’ll learn today
This means
“an approximate number”.
If Bob your American colleague says
“Can you give me a ballpark figure on how much this is gonna cost?”
He wants to know an approximate price.
Nothing precise,
just an estimation.
“A ballpark figure”
Careful,
this may be a warning!
In baseball, the person hitting the ball has 3 chances to actually hit the ball.
If he doesn’t hit the ball after the 3rd chance,
he is eliminated.
So if an American tells you
“Careful, Philippe.
Three strikes and you’re out”,
it probably means that you have made some mistakes
and only have one more chance to succeed.
“Three strikes,
and you’re out!”
If your American project manager says
“Marie-Pierre, can you touch base with Alain on his progress?”
the manager wants you to contact Alain and talk briefly with him
about his progress.
“To touch base with someone” basically means
“to talk briefly about a subject”,
usually to get news
or to give news.
“To touch base with someone”
It’s never a good thing to strike out, really.
“Strike out” means
“to be unsuccessful” at something.
If the person hitting the ball in baseball doesn’t succeed,
he strikes out.
Now careful,
it’s an irregular verb
and we often use it
in the past.
Your American colleague might say
“We really struck out on this one.
What happened?!”
Try not to strike out!
And that’s the last play for today!
Before we finish, a little test. We’ll call it
the Word Series of Baseball idioms.
Word Series, World series, see the joke?
Nevermind…
Try to complete the idioms:
I'll say the first part
and you try to remember the second part.
What about you? Did you know these idioms before watching this video?
Or do you know any other idioms inspired by sports?
Share them with us
in the comments below!
and maybe you can teach something to other viewers of Speak Better, Feel Great TV!
Do you have a colleague who works with Americans?
Do them a big favor and share this video with them!
They’ll thank you for it, I’m sure!
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a lot of free time!
I’m Christina, from Speak Better, Feel Great TV.
See ya next time!