Expressions for Sports - EnglishClass101

Lesson Transcript

Hi, everybody! My name is Alisha.

In this lesson, I'm going to talk about some expressions for sports.

Let's get started!

Okay. First, I want to focus on some very common verbs we use when talking about sports.

The first thing I want to look at is “to play” and I want to compare this to “to do.” So, when we want to talk about a sport and we want to describe, like, our hobby or an activity we regularly do, we often introduce it with one of these two verbs. By that I mean we say “to play a sport” or “I play a sport” or “I do (some activity),” “I do (an activity).”

So, “to play” is used with a sport, yes, sports like baseball, or golf, volleyball, basketball.

So in a full sentence:

“I play baseball.”

Or, “I don't play golf.”

Or, “I like volleyball.”

Or, “I really like basketball.”

On the other hand, when we use do, we're talking about like an activity.

For example:

“I do yoga.”

Or, “My brother does karate.”

Or, “Let's do tai chi this weekend.”

So, how do you decide, is it “do” or “play”?

A good idea or kind of a good guide to keep in mind is if it's a ballsport, meaning it's a sport that uses a ball, so baseball has a ball, a golf has a small ball, volleyball has a larger ball, and basketball is this large-sized ball, so if it's a sport that uses a ball, you can use the word “play.” You can use the verb play.

If there's no ball, you can probably use “do.” So, you'll notice, these are kind of like body-related. These don't use a ball, they're like using the body to do something.

A couple of other points for like other outdoor sports, for example, like snowboarding or skiing or maybe rafting, bicycling, and so on, we don't use “do” with those. We don't say, “I do snowboarding.” We usually use that word as the verb.

For example:

“I snowboard.”

Or, “I ski.”

Or, “I raft.”

Or, “I bicycle.”

So, we use those words as the verbs. So, if you don't- if you're not sure, at least in those kinds of outdoor-sports-related cases, you can use the actual activity as a verb.

But for these other cases, this is how you can kind of remember to choose between “play” and “do.”

Okay, so let's continue onto the next pair.

The next pair are “to score,” like “to score a…” (for something singular) and “to make a…”

So, first let's look at when we use “score.”

We use “score” in cases like these, like to score a goal. This is for, like, soccer. We use “goal” in soccer or in the rest of the world, let's see, in the US, we say soccer, but in countries outside the US, people say football. So, if you're in the US, please note, we say soccer. We use “goal” for soccer.

“To score a touchdown,” touchdown. So, a “touchdown” is in American-style football. That's like a goal. The word is “touchdown” for American-style football.

Or “to score a point,” this is for one point, to score a point, or “to score points” (plural). So this one is kind of general, like any points, you can say, “I scored a point” or “we scored points.” So you can use this in sports or in other games as well.

For example:

“Our team just scored a goal.”

In past tense, “score” becomes “scored.”

So, this other verb, “to make,” we use “make” also to mean like we were able to do something and when we use “make” in sports, it's like we finished something or we received points because of an action.

For example:

“To make a basket.”

“To make a basket,” this is used in basketball. So, when a player throws the ball and the ball goes into the basket, we say the player made a basket. So, that means they successfully threw the ball into the basket and thus received points, so they got two points for that.

But we often will say:

“Oh, (he or she) made a basket.”

So, we don't say, “Oh, she scored a basket” or “she scored a point.” We might say “scored point,” but in basketball, we use “make a basket,” to make a basket.

In golf, we have this other expression, “to make a putt” to make a putt. So P-U-T-T is putt. So, putting is this motion, like right next to the hole in golf. So we make these very small, usually, movements to, like, touch the ball and, like, cause it to roll into the hole.

So similar to basketball where we throw the ball into the basket and we say “make a basket,” in golf, we gently tap the ball with the golf club, that's what this is called, a golf club. We tap the ball with a golf club and if it goes into the hole, the ball rolls into the hole, we say, I made (past tense), “I made a putt,” I made a putt. That's what we say for that.

Of course, sometimes we don't have to putt in golf. Sometimes, the player is very lucky and the ball goes into the hole. You can just say something like, “I made a shot” in that case, like, “I can't believe I made that shot.”

So, there are some other very specific terms that we can use in golf, but you can use “shot” very generally too.

So, for example:

“I can't believe I made that putt.”

“I can't believe I made that putt!”

So maybe, it was a really, really long putt, there was a long distance to the hole.

Okay, let's continue on to the next group.

The next word is “to hit,” to hit.

So we use the verb “to hit,” again for ball sports, yes, and we can also use this for martial arts, like literally to hit someone like a punching motion, yes. We can use hit or punch to describe this, but we use this with baseball and with golf very commonly.

For example:

“to hit a home run”

So, “to hit a home run” means to hit the baseball, to hit the baseball and it goes outside of the baseball field and all players that are currently in the game can run around to all of the bases and finish at home, at home. So, this is called a “home run,” a home run. So the player that hits the ball can run from the home base to first base, second base, third base, and back to home. So, this is called a “home run.”

So, “to hit a home run” is like the verb is the expression we use.

We also use this idiomatically. “To hit a home run” means to have great success in something.

So like after a meeting:

“Wow, we hit a home run.”

So, that means, like, we had some kind of great success.

Another case you might hear “hit” is just with a ball, like to hit a ball. So you can use this in golf, to hit a ball. You can use this in baseball just to talk about using the bat to hit a ball as well. So, this can be very general for any kind of, usually, a stick or club-related motion. “To hit a ball” or to hit a home run or, of course, to hit another person, especially in martial arts.

For example:

“He hit the ball into the crowd.”

Okay, let's look at the next one though.

This next one is “to foul,” to foul.

You may also hear “foul” used a lot as a noun, a foul. So, “to foul,” we usually use “to foul” with a person, like “I fouled another player in the basketball game.” So, “to foul” means to do something against the rules of the game. So, one of our players was fouled means another player in the game from the other team did something against the rules. So, for example, maybe another player grabbed the clothing of a player on our team or another player, like, hit one of our players. There was some error. So, one player did something against the rules to another player, we use “foul” and you'll often hear it in a passive voice.

“One of our players was fouled.”

Okay. So, after you fouled someone or after someone is fouled, there's typically some kind of penalty (in the noun form), penalty. The pronunciation is penalty, not [penalty], but penalty. And as a verb, you can use “to be penalized,” yes, like “I was penalized for my foul in the game.”

But this is kind of a general word, “to be penalized.” You might hear this, like, at work as well. It's not just used in sports.

In sports, however, most sports have their own specific type of penalty. So this is the punishment for a foul. For example, in soccer, like again, Americans say it soccer, the rest of the world says football, in soccer, you may get (so receive) a yellow card or a red card. So, that's a penalty. So, yellow card is like a less mild penalty. Red card means the player is removed from the game. It's a very serious penalty. So, this is a typical soccer penalty.

In American-style football, there might be a “5-yard penalty.” So, a yard is a distance of measurement, 3 feet. So, a 5-yard penalty means one team has to move back 5 yards. So, it makes it more difficult to score a touchdown in American football. So, they may receive a 5-yard penalty for a foul or for doing something against the rules of the game.

Another one, in basketball, “to get a free throw,” to get a free throw. So, as punishment for the team that caused the foul, the team that received a foul will get to have a free throw. So that means the player can stand in front of the basket and throw the basketball to try to make a basket. So, “free throw” means there's no players, there are no players trying to block the shot. The player has a, like, chance to do this freely, so it's called a free throw, a free throw.

So, these are some examples of punishments for the other team. So, if you do something against the other team, they will get a chance to score a point or they will get some- you will get some punishment or the other team will get a chance. It depends on the sport. So, these are all types of punishment really.

Okay, let's continue on to the next expression, which is “to beat,” to beat.

So, we use “beat” to talk about one team like conquering another team, to beat. So, we need to have two parts to this sentence, so that means the team that was the best and the team that was not the best, or the player that was the best and the player that was not the best.

So, for example:

“My college team beat my roommate’s team.”

So, that means I have a team, my roommate has a team, my college team was the winner in the match, so maybe my college football team.

“My college team beat my roommate’s team.”

So maybe, my roommate is in college now or something, whatever. They have a favorite team. You can say Team A was better than Team B, in essence. So, we need to use two different teams or two different players to use “beat.”

So, that means that this is very different from the verb “to win,” which is the next verb.

“To win” does not require two teams. In fact, we use “win” to talk about a match or to talk about a game or to talk about a championship.

For example:

“Our city's team won the match.”

So, “win” in past tense is “won.”.

“Our city's team won the match.”

So, this means our city's team competed in a match and we were the best team. So, we competed in a championship or we competed in some competition, our team was the best. So, we're not saying like with “beat,” our team conquered or our team was better than this team or this team or this team, we just want to communicate, our team or our player, as well, was the winner. So, “win” does not require another team. So, this is different from “to beat.”

The opposite of “win” then is “lose,” to lose, means to not be the best team or to not be the best player at something.

For example:

“We lost the game last weekend.”

So, “lose” becomes “lost” in the past tense.

“We lost the game last weekend.”

That means our team did not do the best. A different team did a better job. So, “to win” is your team is the best. “To lose” means your team is not the best, unfortunately.

Okay, finally, I want to talk about a few expressions that you hear a lot in sports, especially, like in between plays, like maybe after the game or maybe while we're waiting for something to happen in the game, you might hear announcers use these expressions or players might use these expressions.

First, “to give (it) one's best.”

“To give (it) one's best means to give your best effort, to try your best, to do your best in the game. So this is something you might hear a player or a coach say.

“We gave it our best today.”

So, this is in past tense, where “it” means the match. It's like the sporting event, the championship, whatever.

And “we gave it our best shot” is something else you might hear too.

“We tried our best.”

“We gave it our best shot.”

So, this means we're going to give, like to the game or to the match, our full effort.

Okay, the next one is this expression, “to be on the bench,” to be on the bench.

This actually does mean like a physical bench, a player is sitting on a bench.

So, there are some reasons why we might use this expression.

If a player receives a penalty, a player might sit on the bench. They might have a time-out or they may have to stop playing for the game or for a short period of time.

In this example sentence:

“The star player is on the bench with an injury.”

So, in this case, the star player receives an injury in the match or in the game and they take a break and they sit on the bench, So, we say “on the bench” meaning not in play. That player is not in the game right now, to be on the bench.

Okay, finally, the last expression, “to take one for the team,” to take one for the team.

You will hear this outside of sports a lot too, in any team situation. This expression means to do something or like to receive a negative effect of some kind on behalf of the team or for the good of the team. So, it's like you don't want to, but you'll accept some kind of negative responsibility. So, your team members can do something else, like so they can do something without you.

So, like a good example of this might be like if you're in a team situation, a team-meeting situation and you don't have enough of something, you don't have enough, like drinks for your team or something like that, you can say, “Oh, that's all right, I'll take one for the team. I'll buy my own drink.” So, it's like you have some kind of negative effect but you want the other people to succeed or the other people to be happy, so you agree to do something a little different for them, kind of.

So another example:

“I had to take one for the team today.”

So that means I had some kind of, usually, small inconvenience but my team was happy. So, you might hear this as well in sports and in other team-related situations.

So, these are some expressions that you can use when you're talking about sports and other team-related activities. I hope that it was helpful for you.

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