english idioms and use
intermediate
unit 1
what are idioms
a
idioms and meaning
idioms are expressions which have a
meaning that is not obvious from the
individual words
for example
the idiom drives someone around the bend
means
make someone angry or frustrated
but we cannot know this just by looking
at the words
the best way to understand an idiom is
to see it in context
if someone says
that noise is driving me around the bend
it's so annoying
then the context and common sense tells
us that drive round the bend means
something different from driving a car
around a curve in the road
the context tells us the noise is
annoying and that is having an effect on
the person hearing it
b
types of idioms
form
verb plus object or complement
and or adverbial
example
kill two birds with one stone
meaning
produce two useful results by just doing
one action
form
prepositional phrase
example
in the blink of an eye
meaning
in an extremely short time
form
compound
example
a boon of contention
meaning
something which people argue and
disagree over
form simile
as plus adjective class as
or
like plus noun
example
as dry as a bone
meaning
very dry indeed
form
binomial
word plus and plus word
example
rough and ready meaning
crude and liking sophistication
form
trinomial
word plus a word plus and
plus word
example
cool
calm and collected
meaning
relaxed in control not nervous
form
who close or sentence
example to cut a long story short
meaning
to tell the main points but not all the
fine details
c
fixed aspects of idioms
most idioms are fixed in their form and
cannot be changed or varied
sometimes however the grammar or the
vocabulary can be varied slightly
where this book or a dictionary gives
information on what can be varied always
noted in your vocabulary notebook
variation
occasionally an idiom in the active
voice can be used in the passive
example
government ministers always pass the
back if they are challenged about
poverty
blame someone else
or refuse to accept responsibility
the back has been passed from minister
to minister
no one seems prepared to accept the
responsibility
variation
some verb-based idioms also have
non-compound forms
example
there is too much back passing in
governments nowadays
no one accepts the blame for anything
variation
or more words in the idiom can be varied
example
don't give me a hard time
don't give me a rough time
don't give me a tough time
don't make things difficult for me
now you can do exercises
please
pause the video when you see the
exercise that you need and do it
unit 2
using your dictionary
a
what do you look up
as it can be difficult to work out what
an idiom means even when you know all
the individual words in the idiom
you will often need to look up idioms in
a dictionary
if you are working with an online
dictionary then you will have no
problems finding the idiom in question
but working with a traditional
dictionary you have to find where the
idiom is listed as an idiom consists of
several words which of these do you look
up in your dictionary for example do you
try to find kill two birds with one
stone under kill two birds or stone or
let the cat out of the bag
under let cat or bag
if you are using either the cambridge
international dictionary of idioms or
the cambridge advanced learner's
dictionary
then the easiest way of finding what you
need is to look in the alphabetical
index at the back of the book this lists
all the expressions included in the
dictionary with the word where an entry
for the expression will be found in the
dictionary highlighted in bold this
shows that in
cidi kill two birds with one stone will
be found under two and
let the cat out of the bag will be found
under cat
in c-a-l-d
these two idioms will be found under
keel and cat
if you are using a different dictionary
read its introductory notes now to see
how it deals with idioms this will avoid
the frustration you would otherwise feel
on deciding to look up the wrong element
of the idiom first
b
what information does your dictionary
give you
your dictionary will tell you a lot of
other things as well as the meaning of
the idiom
as idioms are used in such fixed ways it
is important to read the notes in your
dictionary carefully if you want to use
idioms as well as to understand them
you will find all these things in a good
dictionary of idioms
information about words that are
interchangeable
for example
drive or send someone round the band
information about how the idiom is used
brackets for example
show if any words in the idiom can be
left out for example i feel it in my
bones i can't feel it in my bones
notes about the grammar of the idiom
there may be notes for example to say
that an idiom is usually used in a
passive construction or in a continuous
form
or in a negative sentence
examples of the idiom in use
comments on register
the register labels used in cidi are
informal formal very informal
old-fashioned taboo
humorous and literary
notes about regional variations and use
this is important as many british idioms
will sound very strange to an american
and vice versa
tip
it is not possible for this book to
include as much information about each
idiom as you will find in a dictionary
so look up the idioms that you
particularly want to learn from this
book in the dictionary as well
in your vocabulary notebook create any
further information or other examples of
the idioms in the context that you find
in your dictionary
now you can do exercises
please pause the video when you see the
exercise that you need and do it
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