How to use Idioms to Express Yourself More Interestingly
If you’re one of our regular readers you’ll be familiar with articles about idioms, but every now and then we like to share a recap for our new subscribers. Here are Spellzone we believe that one of the reasons English is such a difficult language to learn is because it’s full of idioms and every few weeks we take a list of popular idioms and translate them for our second-language English speakers.
An idiom is an expression which has a figurative meaning rather than a literal one. For example, when someone says ‘needle in a haystack’ they probably aren’t actually talking about a needle and a haystack, but about something that is as difficult to find as a needle in a haystack would be.
Here are our top three posts about idioms and expressions. How many of the idioms do you know, and which ones do you use in everyday conversation?
- Idioms about Weather – Part One and Part Two
Here in England, we love talking about the weather. The subject is such an essential part of small talk conversation that it’s no surprise that so many descriptions of weather have taken on figurative meanings as well. From ‘fair-weather friend’ to ‘storm in a teacup’ to ‘in the doldrums’, this article will help you add a little mood and atmosphere to your conversation. We also have winter idioms for if you’re feeling icy, nature idioms if you want to look further afield, and idioms about the sea for anyone who wants to delve deeper into the subject.
- Thirty Idioms about Love
Is there any other subject that has been written about as much as love? Find out what William Shakespeare had to say on the subject here.
Possibly one of humankind’s greatest preoccupations, it’s no wonder that that many of the figurative expressions in the English language originate in matters of the heart. If you’re looking to up your romance game, you may not find all of these idioms useful, but we hope you enjoy the number of weird and wonderful ways of talking about love. You may also enjoy these articles on idioms about the heart, emotions, and friendship.
- Fifty Animal Idioms
This article was our first every piece on idioms and once we started looking for expressions about animals we were spoilt for choice. From ‘ants in your pants’, to ‘birds-eye-view’, to ‘raining cats and dogs’, we quickly found that animal-related idioms crop up throughout the English language and it was difficult to choose just fifty for our article. In the years since we shared this post, we haven’t been able to resist coming back to the subject and there’s no doubt we’ll return to it in the future as well. So if you’re after even more animal idioms, take a look at our articles on birds (part one and part two), cats, and insects.
What are some of your favourite expressions?
12 Jun 2018
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