How To Pronounce 6 Baseball Idioms With An American Accent
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Because baseball is so widely loved and played in America, a lot of baseball phrases have made their way into everyday speech and are used all the time. Learning how to say some of the common idioms with an American accent will help you sound more natural in your conversations, and also will help you understand what people mean when they use them.
6 Baseball Idioms with an American accent:
1. To Hit a Home Run
Meaning: To succeed at something
For example: He really hit a home run when he landed his new job.
Make sure the ‘ea’ (ee) in ‘really’ is long enough – don’t say ‘rilly’ for really.
Make sure you say both sounds in the ‘oe’ vowel in the word ‘home’. It’s not ‘hom’ with a short ‘o’ but, ‘oe’ – home.
2. Ballpark Figure
Meaning: a rough estimate of something
For example: I asked the builder for a ballpark figure for the cost of the new roof.
Make sure you’re using the American accent /r/ in the words builder, for, park, figure, and roof.
Also, for more flowing speech. Link the word ‘for’ with the word ‘a’ – which becomes ‘fora’ said fo-ra.
‘For a ball’
And link ‘cost’ with ‘of’ which becomes ‘cosdof’ – said cos-dov
‘Cost of the’
3. A Curve Ball
Meaning: Something unexpected. To surprise someone with something unexpected or unpleasant to deal with.
For example: She really threw me a curve ball when she said she couldn’t come to the show after I bought such expensive tickets.
Make sure you’re saying a correct ‘th’ in ‘threw’.
To make it easier to get from one vowel to the other, we insert an intrusive ‘y’ between ‘me’ and ‘a’. It becomes /meya/ – said /meeya/.
‘Threw me a’
We don’t say tickets. We do put a weak schwa vowel instead of the ‘e’.
/tickəts/ /kəts/
4. It’s a Whole New Ball Game
Meaning: Referring to a changed situation or a whole new situation. Often one that is difficult or you know little about.
For example: This new manager’s style is so different! It’s a whole new ball game!
Don’t forget to pronounce the ‘s’ at the end of ‘manager’s’ as a /z/ sound.
Make the ‘oe’ in whole, and the ‘ai’ in game long enough.
5. Go To Bat For
Meaning: To support someone when the person needs help. To take the side of, support, or defend.
For example: His Mom will always go to bat for her children, even when they’re wrong sometimes.
Don’t avoid shortening ‘they are’ to they’re. They’re is said the same as in the phrase ‘over there’.
The ‘e’ in children is de-stressed and said as a short ‘u’ schwa vowel.
/drən/
Don’t leave out the ‘s’ which is saying ‘z’, at the end of sometimes.
6. Keep One’s Eye On The Ball
Meaning: To pay attention to a situation or to stay focused on what they’re doing
For example: Bill would do better in class if he’d keep his eye on the ball, especially in math class.
To sound more flowing in American English we don’t say ‘would – do’ with a break between the words. We join them and elide, or get rid of the /d/ at the end of ‘would’.
When a word ends in a consonant, and the next word begins with the same consonant, we elide or get rid of the consonant at the end of the first word.
So it becomes ‘woo do’
‘would do better’
Practice word:
especially /ɪˈspeʃ.əl.i/
It’s said ‘ispe shəlly’ not ‘shally’.
The ‘a’ becomes a schwa short ‘ u’ sound.
/shəlly/
The stressed or longest syllable is ‘spe’
I hope this has helped you practice your American accent, and to understand how to use these idioms in your everyday conversations.
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