What are Idioms?

What are idioms?

Idioms are often nouns and adjectives that have particular meanings or are used to express a particular point in conversation or text. An idiom has a set meaning which changes over time and culture, for example, people from the USA or Britain use haggle instead of negotiating. In our idiom course, we will be trying to teach you all the idioms you need to understand most commonly used in everyday life.

An idiomatic expression has multiple uses and doesn’t mean the same thing at all times. Idioms have many different meanings and sets of uses and are as a result often misused and misunderstood. Many people have always used idioms and yet few know exactly what they mean. Idioms can be explained like this: There are over 6000 idioms in English.

Each one tells you exactly what a phrase means but differently. For instance, I could say something like; “You may ask what color the dress is, but what color are her hands?” and the meaning of this sentence will still be “Is she coming on to me?” Idioms are perfect for telling you the difference between what someone is saying and what they are meaning.

Also, many times the way we use certain idioms to express something can take things away from the actual meaning. There are many different ways to express the same meaning.

Why do we use idioms?

As I stated before we use them for many different reasons for different people.  Macho men learn idioms to show they have culture  Tongue in cheek men (Stupidly sexist) learn them to show they have a sense of humor. Women learn them to show that they understand the language  Children learn them to show they understand the language.  Men, Women, Boys, Girls, and Older Children all learn idioms differently. We do our best to make sure everyone learns idioms the same way and with the same explanations on how to apply the expressions but everyone learns differently.  These are 10 categories of learning:  Native speakers learn idioms to show their culture. So do they talk in different ways in their country?

Why idioms are tricky?

When people think they understand but don’t it’s easier to agree and just to humor them. This is also where people who think they understand idioms but don’t are born. They think they understand the idiom but just feel it. They feel it but not to the extent that they understand it. This is also one of the reasons we use the word agree when we understand idioms and not when we agree with them.

Lesson Six  We learned what you mean by you’re not listening when you are not.  Lesson Seven  When you use an idiom it is only acceptable if you understand it. We know when we say are not listening we are giving people time to understand. There is no reason to be rude to people we are trying to learn from if we are trying to get them to learn something.