The Maple Leaf Rag
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Canada
October 25, 2007
Someone asked me about idioms and if I use them a lot in English. At first, I had no idea what an idiom was. Maybe they didn't have them when I went to school! Just kidding. Of course there were idioms then but I don't remember that they were named that back in the 50's.
Sometimes you can get all caught up in the names of things and ignore what the thing is. It's just another way of saying something. 'It's raining cats and dogs' is another way of saying 'it's really raining hard'. Well you can certainly say either one, and if you were in the middle of a business meeting I'm sure you would simply say that it's raining hard.
Learning idioms isn't necessarily for you to use them. I think it is more for you to understand them when you are in an English country or in an English situation. It's a bit like 'slang' and I think there are regional idioms as well as universal idioms. It's the universal ones that you might want to study. I'll put some of the more popular ones here in a moment.
(My laptop battery ran out so here are the promised idioms)
a pig in a poke - not knowing exactly what you are getting
letting the cat out of the bag - revealing a secret (originally this came from the same source as the first idiom in old England)
three sheets to the wind - drunk
the whole nine yards - everything, nothing missing 'they went the whole nine yards with their wedding'
shake a leg - get up!
rise and shine - get up!
son of a gun - surprise, a mild epithet, "The Leafs lost again? Oh, son of a gun!" "Who's the son of a gun who took my parking place?" "Look at that son of a gun play soccer! He's amazing!" Better to know what it means than to use it, ok?
I think every language has idioms. They might be things that your grandparents said but I'm sure we all have them.
Some of the ones I have used here come from the days of sailing ships and the old British Empire. Wow, the weather here in Canada is cold enough 'to freeze the balls off of a brass monkey!' This isn't as bad as it sounds. Look up the source of that idiom to see what it really means.
More entries: A New Year, New Ways to Learn (1), English sucks...but don't give up. (6), Learning English is never easy, but it's worth the effort. (4), Easy English Stories, English vocabulary - another way to learn (1), A Shit of Paper (3), Break a leg - another English idiom. , Repost: Are all Chinese girls lesbians? (3), How language affects your life. (3), Chinese Writing (5)
