English Grammar Online - free exercises, explanations, vocabulary, dictionary and teaching materials Idioms used by native speakers Those of us who grew up with English as our first language have been exposed to idioms and idiomatic expressions for most of our lives. They may have confused us a little when we were children, but explanation and constant exposure not only increased our understanding of them, but likely drew them into our own vernacular. If you’re in the process of learning the English language, you may come across some of these and not be entirely sure what they mean. Here’s a list of 20 that you’re likely to come across fairly often: 1. A Chip on Your Shoulder No, this doesn’t mean that you’ve dropped part of your snack. 2. Like taking a HUGE bite of a sandwich that will fill your mouth up so much that you can’t move your jaw, this idiom implies that you’ve taken on more than you can handle successfully. 3. You can’t take anything with you when you die, so don’t bother hoarding your stuff or not using it except for “special occasions”. 4. 5. 6. To get married. 7. 8. This means “never”. 9. 10. 11. 12.
Idioms – as clear as mud? Miranda Steel is a freelance ELT lexicographer and editor. She has worked as a Senior Editor for dictionaries for learners at OUP and has also worked for COBUILD. In this post, she looks at some of the weird and wonderful idioms in the English language. Idioms are commonly used in spoken and written English. Native English speakers are usually confident that their readers or listeners will recognize the idiom, so well-known phrases rarely need to be given in full. Some idioms can be shortened in other ways such as long story short (to cut a long story short). “Anyway, long story short, it turns out Drake isn’t really his father.” Sometimes only a fragment of the original idiom remains. Another common way of changing an idiom is to reverse its meaning. Many idioms are very versatile and can be changed in a variety of ways. “Why use a stick when a carrot will work better?” “Their approach is all stick and no carrot.” “They are using every carrot and stick at their disposal.” Like this:
Grammar,Vocabulary ESL Worksheets,Handouts,Tests,Puzzles What do idioms look like? Ahead of his talk at IATEFL 2011 entitled ‘Don’t give up on idioms and phrasal verbs’, Stuart Redman, co-author of Oxford Word Skills, ‘gets to the bottom of‘ idioms in the English language. What’s the first thing that comes into your mind when you see these expressions? - kick the bucket – be barking up the wrong tree – a storm in a teacup – strike while the iron is hot – have egg on your face Your answer is probably that they are all idioms: groups of words that not only have a meaning that is different from the individual words, but also a meaning that is often difficult or impossible to guess from the individual words. Now, let’s turn to another list of expressions. - to some extent – I’ve no idea – from time to time – first of all – in the distance Less obvious perhaps, but the answer, in fact, is the same: they are all idioms. The common factor with both of the above lists is that the form of the expressions have become fixed, or frozen. Do all idioms have a fixed form like this? Like this:
articles on idioms How many words are there in the world's most widely spoken languages? Welcome to Part 2 of my post on “How many words do I need to know? The 95/5 rule in language learning”. If you haven’t done so already, read through Part 1 before continuing! How many words are there in some of the world’s major languages? As I stated in Part 1 of this article, there is really is no way to answer this question. Languages are evolving and continuously changing, and subject to people’s own creativity and imagination. People continuously invent new words, alter some existing ones, or stop using others altogether. The most “objective” measure that we have available for counting the number of words contained in a given language, then, is to calculate the number of words contained in its largest dictionary (really, it’s not that objective, but it’s the only measure we have access to!). So here’s a list for 11 of the most spoken languages around the world (sources given as hyperlinks): Is it true that English has the most words of any language? Do the Math By Sam Gendreau
Sports Idioms Quiz Sports idioms generally originate from a specific sport such as baseball or sailing. Over time these phrases have come to mean something that can be used in everyday life. While most sports idioms can still be used when discussing sports, they are even more common in other areas of life, especially the business world. You can study these idioms just as you would any other vocabulary. Look at the model sentences and practise writing your own. More sports idioms here Sports Vocabulary Wonderful World | allatc MAIN ACTIVITIES Listening, discussion, vocabulary of animals and geographical features. SUITABLE FOR Teens and adults, Intermediate (B1) and above TEACHER’S NOTES (Click here for a pdf of the Teacher’s Notes.) Display this word cloud or make your own at Display the second word cloud, which contains the song title. Tell them to draw a grid four squares by four squares. Play the video – sound only, with the screen blank. Display or hand out a copy of the lyrics so that students can see where their words appear in the song and check new vocabulary if necessary. Put students in pairs and assign each pair two lines of the song. Give them a few minutes to come up with some ideas and then ask each pair to tell the rest of the class what images they agreed on. Now play the video so that students can compare their images with the ones used in the video. Like this: Like Loading...
Sports & Games dictionaries/etymology List of Interactive Quizzes The quizzes with a magenta marble are also listed within the section or digital handout to which they apply. The twenty-one quizzes with a green marble and designated "Practice" have been adapted from the instructor's manual and other ancillary materials accompanying Sentence Sense: A Writer's Guide. The seventeen quizzes with a gold marble were written by the English faculty at an estimable midwestern university and are used here with the permission of that department. The ten quizzes with a red marble were prepared by students in Professor Karyn Hollis's Tutor Training course at Villanova University. Clicking on the NUMBER immediately before the quiz's name will take you to the section of the Guide pertaining to the grammatical issue(s) addressed in that quiz. Clicking on the Guide's logo at the top of a quiz-page will bring you back to this page.
Games for Learning English, Vocabulary, Grammar Games, Activities, ESL Idioms-background/etymology Heute verstehen wir darunter:Etwas, dass kaputtgeht, zerstört wird (auch im übertragenen Sinn). 1. Eine mögliche Erklärung für die Herkunft ist der Bezug zur Bruchrechnung: Wenn Zahlen sich nicht glatt (nicht ohne Rest) teilen lassen, muss man für bestimmte Berechnungen eben Brüche heranziehen. 2. 3. Denkbar ist auch die Verbindung zu: (engl.) breeches 'Kniehosen'. Wir beschreiben natürlich nicht genauer, was dort in die Brüche oder breeches gehen konnte ...