Everything you need to know about idioms

by | Sep 8, 2020 | idioms | 0 comments

It’s often said that English has more idioms than most other languages. Whether or not this is strictly true, it’s certainly a fact that English has a lot of idioms. When you’re learning English, it’s difficult to know where to start. Which of this great number of idioms should you make an effort to learn? How should you learn them? What’s the advantage of knowing a large number of idioms?

This post will give you lots of information on these subjects and offer useful, practical study tips.

 

What are idioms?

Idioms are groups of words that together have a meaning that is different from their usual, literal meanings. For example, if we say that someone has a heart of gold, we mean that they are extremely kind, not that their heart is made of gold! Similarly, a white elephant isn’t an animal – it is an expensive thing that has no use or purpose. 

Why do we use idioms?

Idioms are useful for emphasis – they often have a very strong meaning and they use strong images that help us make our point more forcefully. Sometimes they are funny, so we might use them to introduce some humour into a conversation.

Another important reason for using idioms is that they often express an idea in very few words. For example, instead of saying:

  • Surely you don’t want to lose all the good and potentially useful aspects of this situation in the attempt to get rid of all the bad bits!

It is so much more concise and forceful to say:

  • You don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater!

Why do I need to learn idioms?

Learning idioms is a quick and effective way to improve your English. You need to learn them to understand speech and writing. If you use idioms yourself, you will sound more natural, and the language you use will be more colourful and emphatic. They are an important part of language and are frequently used, so learning idioms is also a great way of making your English sound more like a native speaker’s English.

For a selection of commonly used idioms that will improve your English, see A piece of cake and the best of both worlds: what are the most popular idioms?

What’s the best way to learn idioms?

You will probably discover a number of idioms that have an exact (or very close) equivalent in your own language. In other words, you won’t even have to learn this set of idioms! Less familiar idioms might stick in your mind because they’re strange or very different from anything in your own language.  

We think it’s a good idea to learn idioms in topic groups, for example idioms related to success and failure or idioms related to time. That’s why our book, Idioms: 30 days to learn 150 essential idioms, is organised in groups of 5 idioms, each group relating to a particular topic.

We also think you should see an idiom in context so we’ve provided for each idiom, two example sentences and an additional two sentences in the exercises. This helps you to gain a fuller understanding of how each idiom is used. For example, does it express a positive idea, or a negative one? Is it usually used in a particular tense, or with particular words?

Make a note of idioms you come across – after all, the ones you hear in your own life are likely to be the most useful ones for you to learn!

Are idioms old-fashioned?

There seems to be some evidence that young people use idioms a bit less than older people. However, idioms are far from dead! They are still extremely common in everyday speech and writing, so you definitely need to learn them. Our book, Idioms: 30 days to learn 150 essential idioms, only contains idioms that are still used frequently, so you can be confident that nobody will laugh at you if you use them!

For more information, see Is the idiom ‘It’s raining cats and dogs’ old-fashioned? How can I learn useful idioms?

Are idioms a form of cliché?

In the sense that they are phrases that are used a lot, yes. But phrases become clichés precisely because they are used a lot. And that means that they are useful! If you are doing a piece of creative writing, you might want to avoid idioms and choose a more original phrase instead, but in all other situations, they are common and useful for the reasons given above. And of course, people modify and play with idioms all the time, changing words to fit a particular situation, often for comic effect.

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To improve your use of idioms, buy our book:

Idioms: 30 days to learn 150 essential idioms

Phrases for Conversations in English
Kate Woodford

Kate Woodford

I'm a freelance lexicographer and writer, living in Cambridge, UK. I worked for many years on Cambridge University Press’s range of ELT dictionaries and now work with Liz Walter on dictionary and non-dictionary titles. My other interests include fashion, cooking, child-rearing, BBC Radio 4 and the quirks and peculiarities of the English language. You can follow me on Twitter @Katewoodford2