- Idioms, which are often thought to be difficult to learn and use, are, in fact, a very interesting part of the language. In this article, we’ll tell you what they are, if you need to spend time learning them, and we’ll give you a list of the most popular and useful of them.
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What is an idiom?
- An idiom is a figure of speech, which usually consists of a few words that should be understood figuratively. More that that, the words of the idiom don’t define the meaning of the whole expression. It means that even if you know every single word of the expression, you may not understand the meaning of the idiom. For example: «My head is spinning». Of course, heads don’t spin; it’s just an expression that means that a person is tired or confused.
- Of course, there are a ton of idioms in the English language that people use every day. Some of them are easy to guess because you can find a synonymous expression in your native language. Take «when pigs fly» for instance. It means never and there are similar expressions in other languages. Other idioms’ meanings can only be guessed from the context, like «to get out of the window» meaning lose something. There are other idioms meaning of which can only be explained. In the Russian language there is an expression «cry out loud the entire Ivanovskaya square». It means to tell something to everyone. There is no similar expression in the English language, as there is no similar square in England.
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Are idioms worth learning?
- This is a frequently asked question. And the answer isn’t always the same. On the one hand, idioms are hard to memorize as the often look like a random combination of words, on the other hand, some people find it easy to memorize idioms by finding a association. This all really depends on the situation when you heard an idiom. If you just decided to learn a few idioms from a dictionary, you are unlikely to memorize them, as there is no context. We advise to learn idioms intuitively. If you study English intensively, you are bound to see a lot of expressions in books, movies and YouTube videos. It is unnecessary to write down every new expression you hear. You will memorize the most useful and popular of them.
- It is important to say that if you are only in the beginning of your language-learning path, don’t concentrate on learning idioms. What’s the point of learning 10 expressions and not knowing how to use them? This may put you into a very uncomfortable position. You should learn idioms only when you are absolutely sure that they will make your language richer. It’s better not to use them if you are not sure.
You will memorize the most useful and popular idioms with no extra effort.
In the end we will give you a list of the idioms that we learned intuitively with examples:
- Away aways – far far away, in the middle of nowhere. «Mark lives away aways».
- Not to miss a bow – to be able to respond quickly. We heard this expression in a political show where one of the opponents destroyed another during a TV-debate. Spectators said: «Wow, she really doesn’t miss a bow».
- To call a spade a spade – to name things what the really are. «Look, admit it, let’s call a spade a spade!»
- To put somebody on the spot – put someone on the fire line. Two TV-show characters are discussing a situation where one of them had to sellout another to save himself from jail. «I don’t mean to put you on the spot, but I have no choice».
- Go out on a limb – say something that other people are not going to like. «I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say…».
- Go down the drain – to get spoiled. «My entire life’s work went down the drain because of you».
- To turn a blind eye to something – to pretend not to notice something. «She knows I did it, but she turned a blind eye to it».
- We memorized these idioms without actually learning them. We heard them in movies a lot of times, it their meanings were obvious from the context.
- Every person wants to be interesting to other people, and this can be achieved provided that his or her language is interesting and rich. Idioms can be of real help here, but if you are just a beginner at studying English, there are more important things to concentrate on right now!