English Idioms By EssayCompany: what are they, and should you learn them?

English idioms are an attractive, entertaining part of the language, but sometimes beginners pay too much attention. From this article written by essay-company writers (https://essaycompany.org/), you will learn what idioms are and whether they are worth remembering. The difference between an idiom and a proverb where butterflies in the stomach come from, and what it is that spoon that sucks with fear.

What are idioms?

Idioms or phraseological expressions are stable turns of speech, indecomposable combinations of words, understood, as a rule, in symbolic meaning. The meaning of its constituent words does not determine the importance of the whole expression. Often the sense of an idiom is difficult to guess, to understand from its constituent words if you are not familiar with it.

For example: to be in the same boat. It means "to be in the same situation, to experience the same difficulties.

"I understand your problem. We are in the same boat."

Idioms are called stable, indecomposable combinations because they are used in a fixed form. For example, no one says to sit together in the same boat or be in the same vessel. An idiom is used as a ready-made figurative pattern for some typical situations.

The meaning of the expression about the boat can probably be guessed, primarily when heard in context, but there are idioms whose purpose is impossible to imagine.

"I want to buy a Saturday night special, but I'm scared to own it."

Idioms are called stable, indecomposable combinations because they are used in a fixed form. For example, no one says to sit together in the same boat or be in the same vessel. An idiom is used as a ready-made figurative pattern for some typical situations.

"A rolling stone gathers no moss."

The meaning is a person who often changes his place of residence, occupation, never settles down, does not settle down. Accordingly, the equivalent would be: "he who does not sit still will not make a good living."

How many idioms are there in the English language?

There are thousands of idioms in English, but it is impossible to tell the exact number, just as it is impossible to say the precise number of words in the language. For example, the Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms (M. McCarthy, 1998) has 5782 dictionary entries, but that number doesn't say much.

English idioms are as much living units of speech as words, and their numbers are constantly changing. Some idioms live for centuries, while others quickly go out of use.

English idioms, proverbs, colloquial formulas, phrasal verbs, and other similar units of speech

Idioms can easily be confused with proverbs, various speech patterns, phrasal verbs. Even scientists sometimes find it difficult to distinguish them.

Idioms are a type of formulaiс language - stable, indecomposable expressions that should be understood and taught as a single unit of speech, rather than a group of words.

These patterns include:

1. Greetings and good wishes

How are you?
Have a good day!

2. Prepositional groups or prepositional phrases

In a minute
Once in a while

3. Proverbs, sayings, proverbs, quotations.

Bad news travels fast
Buy the best, and you only cry once

4. Phrasal verbs.

To look for
To sign in

5. To look for, to look for, sign in, and register. 5.

Blond hair
Deeply disappointed

6. Conversational speech formulas

You have to be kidding!
Do you see what I'm saying?

7. Idioms

A penny for your thought
To give the green light

As you can see, the line between idioms and similar expressions is sometimes tough to draw. For example, the phrasal verb to look for cannot be called an idiom - there is nothing conversational about it, that is, any symbolic meaning. But the phrasal verb to sail through can easily be confused with an idiom because it has a symbolic meaning.

В idioms, and even more so in various collections of phrases on the Internet, are often found not only in dictionaries but in everything that remotely resembles them. It has at least a hint of idiom, including individual words with symbolic meanings.

How much knowledge of English idioms is necessary?

Sometimes I think that English idioms are almost the first necessity because they are ubiquitous in English.

Honestly, not that often.

It is beneficial and exciting to know idioms, but there is no point in learning them on purpose. Let's consider two cases: knowing idioms for their use in speech and understanding speech or text.

1. Use of idioms in speech

Many idioms have a stylistic coloring, are used in informal speech, are characteristic of some social or age groups.

2. Understanding idioms

In my experience, I can say that when speaking to native speakers, idioms are rare. Often there are:

colloquial clichés,
phrasal verbs,
sentence groups.

But idioms, that is, turnips with symbolic meaning, like it rains cats and dogs when pigs fly, are rare. Your interlocutors understand that English is not your native language and try to speak without much difficulty.

By the way, many have noticed that when you talk to a foreigner in the company, you understand him well, but when they talk to each other, nothing is understandable. People talk to each other in their everyday language without making allowance for the "foreignness" of the interlocutor, so their speech can be dotted with slang and incomprehensible jokes.

Do I need to learn idioms?

If you have recently started studying English, you still have a small vocabulary, and reading a page of English text gives you a headache. You do not need to learn, memorize English idioms by heart actively. Idioms are quite an advanced part of the language, not a priority initially. If you discover a list of 100 or 200 idioms, in practical terms, it will give you very little because they are not so common, but your head will be scored thoroughly.

But idioms are perceived by many as an attractive, curious part of language, something like amazing facts or "did you know that...?" In that case, idioms can just be read at your leisure as something entertaining.

But if you're actively reading and listening in English, you'll sometimes encounter idioms. I think you should memorize them at a comprehension level, but there is no point in learning them so solidly that you can use them freely in speech - they are not such ordinary and necessary expressions.

Fortunately, memorizing idioms at the comprehension level is relatively easy, thanks to their vividness, imagery, and sometimes an entertaining origin story. The unusual and vivid things are best imprinted on the memory.

Popular English idioms with translation - a selection from personal experience

In conclusion, here is a selection of idioms that I have encountered in practice: I have not read them out of a textbook, but heard them from someone, met them while reading, and for some reason, they stuck in my memory. Here is my list of popular idioms.

Piece of cake - easy as pie, like a piece of cake.

It's an expression I learned as a kid. In Terminator 2, John Connor, the future savior of humanity, hacks into an ATM with some electronic device and steals money from it. "Piece of cake," John says and runs away.

To ring a bell - to remind you of something, to ring a bell.

The idiom has been seen several times in movies and detectives and is remembered because of the imagery. The ringing of a bell symbolizes a sudden thought.

Rule of thumb - A simple rule of thumb, an approximate way of judging letters.

The rule of thumb is a simple, practical method of not measuring something accurately. Linguist Paul Nation likes to use the expression in scientific papers and lectures.

The origin of the idiom is not precisely established. One version says that the "rule of thumb" came from the old carpenters' way of measuring - with a finger, not a measuring instrument. Everyone's fingers, of course, are different, so such a "tape measure" was not distinguished by accuracy but was easy to use. According to another version, the expression came from an alleged law in England, according to which the husband was allowed to beat his spouse with a stick, but not thicker than his thumb.

To have a crush on someone.

The expression is often found in youth comedies, teen literature, and sitcoms such as "The Friends" or "How I Met Your Mother.

Different ball game

It's an expression I've only heard from one person, but many times. Do you know how some people have favorite words and phrases? Just such a case in point. An acquaintance of mine in America, a kindly elderly uncle who loved to spout wisdom and talk about the old days, used to say things like.

Jumpscare, in horror movies: a sudden frightening of the viewer, literally: a jump scare.

One of the essential and most effective scare tools in the horror movie and game makers' arsenal, which is why I don't like the genre. In its most primitive form, it looks like this.

The hero sneaks down the dark hallway of a vampire castle with a flashlight, the music building up a tense atmosphere. He approaches a large mirror on the wall, and then there is a rustle, and a shadow flashes behind him. The hero sharply turns around and sees that it is just a mouse. He exhales and says, "It's just a damn mouse!" and turns to the mirror, AND THERE!!! Plus a robust and squealing sound effect. Such scares make the viewer jump on the spot (apparently, hence the name).

The device is hackneyed among genre fans who have resorted to it in a cheap horror movie. In good horror, scare in much more subtle, profound ways, forcing not just the occasional jumping out, dropping popcorn, and the entire film to sit in suspense, and by the end just burning your nervous system to the ground.

I was introduced to this cinematic term when I watched the walkthrough of the super scary game PT on YouTube. Someone wrote in the comments that the frequent use of jump scare frustrated him - such a good game and such a cheap trick.

The bottom line is the gist, summary, lit.: bottom line, bottom line, bottom line.

This idiom means approximately the same: inference, conclusion. For example, a long article may end with a paragraph called "Conclusion" or "The Bottom Line.

Street smart

I heard the expression in a conversation with an American journalist, John Alpert. He said he had never been super bright, except for being street smart.

Street smart is a smartness acquired not at school and over books, but on the street, in life, in everyday life. It is also understood in a narrower sense: the ability to survive on the street.

Upload date: 2022-01-28 09:48:55