![]() These kinds of idioms are far more common, and therefore far more important, than the more colorful expressions like ‘He’s kicked the bucket’ (died), ‘She’s hitting the books’ (studying), or ‘ Break a leg!’ (Good luck!), and without them students often sound too formal – saying things like: These sentences all contain idioms, because you can’t swallow words or dig in a bank account in any literal or physical way – and how can a ‘spark’ do well at school? You’ll also notice that a literal translation into most languages won’t make sense. He’s a really bright spark, so I think he’ll do well at school.The police have been digging around in his accounts looking for evidence of fraud. ![]() I find his excuses hard to swallow, he’s lying.I’m going to show you how you can easily understand more than 100 English idioms, used in both American English and British English, even the first time you hear them.įirstly, you need to know that idioms and phrases are everywhere in English: anything that doesn’t have a literal, physical meaning is an idiom. We can memorize a few, and try to use them as often as we can (probably too often!), but how do we manage an idiom that we are meeting for the first time?Ĭlick here to download our free guide to English Idioms. But how do we remember what they mean and how to use them? We love idiomatic expressions and idiomatic phrases in English, don’t we? From an English language-learner’s point of view, they are the ‘icing on the cake’ much like phrasal verbs and adjectives. She got off Scott-free (escaped without punishment).He let the cat out of the bag (accidentally told a secret).Sometimes called an expression, an idiom can be very colorful and make a ‘picture’ in our minds. Idiomatic expressions are groups of words with an established meaning unrelated to the meanings of the individual words. ![]()
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