Learning idioms? Hang in there!*

What is an idiom, or idiomatic phrase?  It’s a phrase that isn’t literal, and that you can’t really guess by translating it word for word or by thinking about it literally.  For example, “I’ve got a frog in my throat” does not literally mean that there is a little green amphibian sitting in my throat.  It means that I feel like something is caught or stuck in my throat.  Another example is “It was a piece of cake”, meaning “It was easy".

According to Wikipedia, there are an estimated 25,000 idioms in the English language…so whenever you’re learning them, bear in mind that you don’t have to learn all of them!  But they do make you sound more fluent if you know some of the most common ones, and you’ll also be better able to understand what other English speakers are saying too.

So where to start?  Well, there are hundreds of websites, blogs and YouTube videos that will tell you what are apparently the most frequently-used idioms in English, but I would advise you to start by finding idioms that fit your every-day life and interests.  Are you at school, working, studying...? For example, if you’re working, here are a some useful business idioms Business Idioms and Expressions for Meetings - Learn Free (businessenglishresources.com).  And for general English, I like these two blogs as they mentions a lot of popular idioms and explain them well, I think: 15 most common English idioms and phrases | EF English Live and 40 Common English Idioms (thoughtco.com). You can also learn idioms on a theme, for example there are many more animal idioms, and far more dog idioms than I thought possible! 

 You can also think about idioms in your own language that you like, or that you often use, and then go to an online translator or internet search to find out if there is an equivalent in English.  The most important thing is to not translate idioms literally as they will often make no sense at all in another language.  For example, if an Italian told you “In the mouth of the wolf” or a French person said to you “Shit!”, you might not know that they’re actually wishing you good luck in their own language…and let’s not even think about how offended you might be!

I hope this helps you to feel a little less like a fish out of water (out of place) when trying to learn English idioms and that you enjoy learning ones that are useful for you. If you’re good at art, you can certainly have fun making literal drawings or paintings of them, such as the images that Roisin Hahessy and Keren Rosen have created here.

I would be really interested to hear about your experience of learning English idioms, which English idioms you find the most useful or funny, or perhaps the idioms that exist in your own language! So please feel free to do this by using the comments section below 😊.

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*Be patient/don’t lose hope!