Here are my five top reasons you are having trouble
understanding English idioms. Pay attention to these reasons,
and these tips and learning and understanding idioms should become much easier.
Reason no. 1: You focus on the meaning of the idiom but not
on sentence examples and other explanations on how idioms are used.
You know, so many English learners only watch the beginning of my videos. And,
I understand this. See, I give them what they want right off the bat. The meaning.
But, if they don't pay attention to the sentence examples and other usage notes,
and even the origin and allusion, they may not really understand the idiom at all!
I want you to listen very closely to what I'm about to say:
Just because you know the meaning of an idiom doesn't mean you know how to use it or
that you understand how it is used when you hear it. Focus just as much
on examples of the idiom being used. The more examples, the better you'll understand.
One of the toughest idioms I've presented thus far is 'to save something for a rainy day.'
While the meaning seems very simple, to keep something to be used in a time of need,
so many members of my Facebook group tried to make up their own examples but used the idiom wrong!
They thought they understood the idiom because they learned the meaning
but they didn't pay enough attention to the examples and they didn't seek out
other examples before they tried their own. This can cause you to habitually use an idiom
incorrectly without anybody to ever correct you. Not everybody is a member of my Facebook group.
So, the result of all this was that they didn't understand HOW and WHEN the idiom
was used. You don't just save anything for a rainy day. You save either important resources
or very special, perhaps expensive things, like a good bottle of wine. But usually,
you save money for a rainy day. The only way to know how native speakers
actually use 'save for a rainy day' is to find as many examples of it being used as possible.
Reason number two is related to number one.
If you've been told to immediately start coming up with your own examples
after you learn the meaning of an idiom or even a new vocabulary word, you have been told wrong!
Immediately trying to make up your own examples, examples,
as I said, will likely cause you to use and understand the idiom incorrectly,
and you'll have no one to correct you! So, before you make up any of your own examples,
again, seek out as many examples of the idiom being used as you possibly can.
Reason no. 3: You think that idioms 'don't make sense.'
Many users in my Facebook group and many of my video viewers complain that English idioms
don't make any sense. If you come into it thinking that idioms don't make sense,
you will be defeated before you even begin.
Remember, the idioms of your native language make sense to you! So, of course,
English idioms make sense to English speakers. One of the biggest misconceptions about idioms,
held even by English teachers, is that they do not make any sense.
The individual words in an idiom may not help you understand the meaning. These types of
idioms are called non-compositional idioms. But, the idiom itself has a meaning and that meaning,
of course, makes sense to native speakers. And, not all idioms are non-compositional.
Some are compositional, meaning that the individual words can have a meaning. They
have their own idiomatic meaning. The more you understand, the more you'll understand the idiom.
Reason no. 3: You started learning them late.
Many English teachers have been taught that students should not be exposed to idioms and that
early English learners should avoid using them in order to facilitate learning and communication.
Teachers, therefore, use a type of simple grammar and vocabulary that a native speaker
would never use. Thus, when you are suddenly faced with the full richness of the language,
together with those confounding idioms, you are overwhelmed and feel unprepared.
English is better taught using the actual phrases, idioms, shortcuts, collocations,
etc. that native speakers actually use. Failing this, when you do try to learn idioms, such as by
watching television shows, it is non-interactive and you cannot practice and get feedback.
So, start learning idioms as soon as possible
and try to integrate them into your understanding sooner, rather than later.
4. Idioms are under-represented and misrepresented in English learning material.
Many EFL teachers do not know many idioms themselves,
especially if they are not a native speaker! Nor do they know their origin and their real usage.
If you want to learn idioms you need to seek out specialized material. And, watch the videos I
publish on this channel. I am an idiom specialist. I study all sorts of idioms and try to explain not
only their meanings, but how and when they are used, their origins, and allusion or metaphors.
Reason no. 5: You have been told that all idioms are fixed.
Many English learners use all the idioms they come across based on the form in which they
first encounter the idiom. Some idioms are fixed in their form, but others are not.
Consider two idioms: kick the bucket and bury the hatchet.
Although you can change the tense of the verb kick,
kick the bucket is otherwise frozen. You can't say the bucket was kicked.'
It's "He kicked the bucket," not, "the bucket was kicked by him."
Bury the hatchet is more flexible.
"They buried the hatchet." Or, "The hatchet was buried years ago."
If you think all idioms are fixed in their form and then you hear native speakers using them in
different ways that seem 'incorrect' to you, of course you are going to be confused. I've
even had English learners argue with me about the proper form of an idiom because they learned it in
a certain form and assumed it could never be altered. Idioms can be quite flexible.
I'll say one other thing about idioms before I end this video.
Idioms are used in all sorts of situations, both formal and informal. Many teachers focus
on idioms as informal everyday English. However, there are many idioms used in formal situations
as well. You will encounter idioms wherever and whenever English is being spoken.