A-Formulaic language
Idioms are a type of formulaic language. Formulaic language consists of fixed expressions which you learn and understand as units rather than as individual words, for example:
B-Idioms
Idioms are fixed combinations of words whose meaning is often difficult to guess from the meaning of each individual word.
For example, if I say 'I put my foot in it the other day at Linda's house - I asked her if she was going to marry Simon', what does it mean? If you do not know that put your foot in it means say something accidentally which upsets or embarrasses someone, it is difficult to know exactly what the sentence means. It has a non-literal or idiomatic meaning.
Idioms are constructed in different ways, and this book gives you practice in a wide variety of types of idiom. Here are some examples:
-Tim took a shine to [immediately liked] his teacher. (verb+ object+ preposition)
-The band's number one hit was just a flash in the pan [something that happens only once] (idiomatic noun phrase)
-Little Jimmy has been as quiet as a mouse [extremely quiet] all day. (simile. See Unit 9 for more similes.)
-We arrived safe and sound [safely]. (binomial. See Unit 10 for more binomials.)
-Idioms are often based on everyday things and ideas, for example, the human body:
-Mark and Alistair don't see eye to eye. [don't agree with each other]
C-How can I use idioms?
Many idioms are quite informal, so use them carefully. You will need to be able to understand a lot of idioms if you want to read English fiction, newspapers or magazines,
or understand TV shows, films and songs. People also often use idioms for humour or to comment on themselves, other people and situations.
You will sound more natural and fluent if you can use idioms in everyday conversation or informal writing. Be careful not to use too many, though!
Language help The words and word order of idioms are usually fixed, and we cannot change them in any way. For example, we cannot say gave a shine to or sound and safe.
-EnglishIdioms in Use Advanced
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