[Idiom] 'It ain't over till it's over'

[Olympian]

Hello,

what is the meaning of 'It ain't over till it's over'?

"There were some people who thought that I was finished," Cain said Wednesday night. "But I'm going to leave it with Yogi Berra's comment: 'It ain't over till it's over.' And it ain't over yet."
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Does it simply mean 'it isn't over yet'? or is there more to it?

Thank you

 

[Raymott]

Hello,

what is the meaning of 'It ain't over till it's over'?

"There were some people who thought that I was finished," Cain said Wednesday night. "But I'm going to leave it with Yogi Berra's comment: 'It ain't over till it's over.' And it ain't over yet."

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Does it simply mean 'it isn't over yet'? or is there more to it?

Thank you

There's no more to it. The meaning is almost as trivial as it appears.
The context will reveal what the point is, eg. "You can't judge the outcome of something until it's over."; "You can't say my career is over if I'm still working", etc.

 

[Olympian]

There's no more to it. The meaning is almost as trivial as it appears.
The context will reveal what the point is, eg. "You can't judge the outcome of something until it's over."; "You can't say my career is over if I'm still working", etc.

@Raymott, thank you for explaining with other sentences.

Is this expression same as - 'It’s not over until the fat lady sings'?

 

[Raymott]

@Raymott, thank you for explaining with other sentences.

Is this expression same as - 'It’s not over until the fat lady sings'?

No, but you could adapt it to a similar context. The fat lady saying is from opera - it's not over until the diva performs her final aria. (Don't ask me if it's true - I'm not an opera fan).
Similar phrase:
"Don't count your chickens before they hatch."
They all mean something slightly different, but can be used meaningfully if the context allows it.

 

[~Mav~]

The fat lady saying is from opera - it's not over until the diva performs her final aria. (Don't ask me if it's true - I'm not an opera fan).

It's not true - for at least two reasons:
a) Only a very few opera end with an aria.
b) I hope it's not new to anyone, but not every opera singer (including divas) is fat. :lol:

A typical example of an opera ending with the death of the female protagonist is the final scene of Tosca by Puccini, where Tosca jumps off the top of Castel Sant'Angelo, singing her final line (NB: not an aria!), "O Scarpia, avanti a Dio!" (By this time, the male protagonists had already died, one of them - Scarpia - at Tosca's hand. :twisted: ) Admittedly, during the history of opera, there indeed have been several overweight Toscas ( :lol: ), but again, that's not necessarily so. ;-)

I would have liked to include a link to one of Maria Callas's performances, but I couldn't find this particular scene on YouTube with her.

 

[Olympian]

@Raymott, @Mav, thank you.

I hope I don't offend Mav by something I read about opera. ;-)

"Opera is when a guy gets stabbed in the back and, instead of bleeding, he sings." -Ed Gardner

 

[SoothingDave]

I doubt Yogi Berra was a big opera fan. He is a wonderful source of witticisms, intentional or not.

 

[Tdol]

Does it simply mean 'it isn't over yet'? or is there more to it?

It does emphasise that there is always hope and a chance to change things right till the end.

 

[Olympian]

It does emphasise that there is always hope and a chance to change things right till the end.

@Tdol, thank you.

With your explanation in mind, let me try to use this expression.

Even though Germany has bailed out Greece in the debt crisis once before, Greece did not get its act together and Germany and other nations had to help it again.:shock: Now the Euro debt crisis is threatening the Euro itself,:shock: but it ain't over till it's over. There is hope against hope that a solution would be found, although experts are warning that the Euro crisis is not a licence to print money, which might at best bring short-term relief.
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[Tdol]

That works, but I would change a solution would be found to will be found.

 

[Ouisch]

A classic (to American football fans, anyway) example of "it ain't over till it's over" is the so-called "Heidi Game" of November 1968. Two long-time rival teams, the Oakland Raiders and the New York Jets, were playing a game late Sunday afternoon, which was televised as usual. What wasn't usual about this particular Sunday was that NBC, the television network broadcasting the game, had a special movie presentation of Heidi scheduled to air at 7:00PM that night. The network had promoted the movie heavily all week and millions of viewers were expected to tune in for this special heart-warming family event.

But the football game took many unexpected turns - several injuries and many time-outs caused the game to run longer than the three hours NBC had allotted for the broadcast. There were just two minutes left on the game's official clock at 7PM, and the Jets were leading with 32 points to the Raiders' 29. NBC executives made the decision to cut away from the game at 7PM and broadcast Heidi as scheduled (There are only two minutes left, they figured; what could happen? The Jets have won the game). But Oakland miraculously managed to score two touchdowns in those final two minutes of the game, and they won the game with a score of 43 to 32. Of course, this historic upset was missed by most TV viewers, who had to watch a little blonde girl in the Swiss Alps instead.

 

[Barb_D]

My father is still annoyed about that! He was a big Raiders fan.

 

[SoothingDave]

As I understand it, the network switched back to the game just in time to miss everything.

 

[Olympian]

That works, but I would change a solution would be found to will be found.

@Tdol, thank you for the correction. I appreciate it. (bow)

This is a confusing one for me (will vs would).

I saw this in the definition of 'would' on freedictionary.com

2 used in speaking of something that will, may or might happen (eg if a certain condition is met) If I asked her to the party, would she come?; I would have come to the party if you'd asked me; I'd be happy to help you.
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If I change my sentence slightly (to include a condition) as follows, then can I use would?

If Greece agrees to put an austerity program in place, there is hope against hope that a solution would be found, although experts ...
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