Learning English through Idioms

Idioms by topic!

2008-07-22T08:07:00.000-07:00

As you may know there are diferent idiom categories

Here a web site to discover each one of them:

http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/cat/

If you have any comment, just let us know!

Video Suggestions on IDIOMS

2008-07-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

The Teacher http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/multimedia/the_teacher/

YouTube

Mefeedia

http://mefeedia.com/tags/idiom/

El sitio para encontrar los idioms que andabas buscando!

2008-07-22T07:57:00.000-07:00

Actualemente el idioma ingles es predominante,

sin dudas, en los negocios, las comunicaciones, el transporte y el turismo a nivel internacional. Ademas la informatica y la moderna tecnologia utilizan, en la mayoria de los caso, palabras provenientes de este idioma e incorporan de manera permanente, nuevos terminos o nuevos significados a palabras existentes.

Esta tendencia al predominio del ingles se ha acentuado, en los ultimos años, en medios de proceso de cambio en los sistemas de telecomunicaciones, que relaccionan y en gran medidad, uniforman las regiones mas distantes del planeta. Mas alla de las distintas visiones (favorables o criticas), sobre las consecuencias economicas, politicas y sociales que estos procesos generan, se trata de una realidad indiscutible.
Lo cierto es que el manejo de este idioma se ha convertido en una herramienta indespensable para profesionales, hombres de negocios, estudiantes, tecnicos, e incluso para los trabajadores de la industria, el comercio o los servicios. Todos deben de enfrentar en su vida cotidiana, la necesidad de manejar, al menos, conocimientos basicos del ingles.

http://www.vacationinnicaragua.com/ben/idi/home.html

Quizz: Idioms of mood and emotion

2008-07-22T07:43:00.000-07:00

Match the sentences containing English idioms of mood/emotion (in bold) with the adjectives above:

1.- When I received the concert tickets for Muse I was on cloud nine!

2.- When my sister opened her birthday card and a cheque fell out she was tickled pink.

3.- When my brother returned home from the pub late last night I could see that he was pie-eyed.

4.- When I was waiting to go on stage to perform in front of the whole school I had butterflies in my stomach.

5.- When I finished my twelve hour shift at the supermarket I was completely zonked out.

6.- When Alan Forrester looked me in the eye at registration this morning I went weak at the knees.

7.- When my brother kept playing the same Rihanna song over and over again at full volume I told him, "You're driving me up the wall!"

8.- When I went on the Big One rollercoaster at Blackpool Pleasure Beach my heart was in my mouth.

9.- When my brother wouldn't stop going on about problems with his love life I told him not to be such a moaning Minnie.

10.- When my dad came home from work and just slumped in his armchair without saying a word, I asked him, "Why the long face?"

Answers:

1. overjoyed

2. pleased

3. drunk

4. nervous

5. exhausted

6. in love

7. annoying

8. terrified

9. complaining

10. sad

from: http://www.englishbanana.com

"HOW TO SURVIVE IN THE CHILEAN JUNGLE" By John Brennan

2008-07-22T07:39:00.000-07:00

A remarkable book on "How to Survive" in that vast world of Spanish Dichos and Modismos of Chile.

"Help!!! That pretty much sums up how I felt my first few months in Chile. Quickly realizing that the Spanish spoken [there] is far different to that which I was accustomed to in Mexico and Guatemala, I decided to buy a notebook and write down the new words I heard... Me and my little book were constantly laughed at, but at least life was becoming much easier as I began to cachar el mote...And it was obvious that I was not alone in the "jungle" as the vacant expressions of so many foreigners attested to. So one day it occurred to me: why not write a book of chilenismos (Chilean slang) and some of the more traditional Spanish expressions that are heard here? Chilean Spanish is not typical Spanish. It is a idiomatic language...[from] Chile's history of immigration and close knit immigrant communities and thus the frequency of words and expressions from other languages (primarily Italian, Yugoslavian, German and English). Added to this is the notable increase of Spanglish, as English schools have spread throughout Chile and as music, movies and technology from the United States has flooded the market." --John Brennan July 30, 1996 Santiago, Chile Excerpt taken from the Prologue.

To see more information http://www.chileandichos.blogspot.com/

Raining cats and dogs

2008-07-22T07:26:00.000-07:00

"raining very heavily."

Centuries ago, people thought certain animals had magical powers. Sailors believed cats had something to do with rainstorms. Dogs and wolves were symbols of winds in Norse mythology.

Idioms with Colours

2008-06-10T11:59:00.000-07:00

Here are some examples

Red
I'm seeing red.
If you keep spending your money like this you will be soon in the red
Don't mention Tom's promotion to Mike. It would be like a red flag to a bull!

Blue
It came out of the blue!
I'm blue today
He's the director's blue-eyed boy!

Green
I'm green with envy.
We're ready to launch the campaign as soon as we get the green light.
Jake's garden is beautiful, he really does have green-fingers.

Black
I'm in a black mood today because he forgot my birthday.
He bought it in the black market
Last night, he blacked out

HAVE YOU SEEN LITERAL EXPLANATION OF IDIOMS?

2008-06-10T11:54:00.000-07:00

if you want to see more, click here

Usage

2008-06-03T11:44:00.000-07:00

Are you fed up with being short of money all the time?

We want to know your opinion

What's an Idiom?

2008-06-03T11:26:00.000-07:00

Idioms are semi-fixed expressions used to create images. In the idiom above, for example, there are no real cats or bags involved. The image is of someone getting a surprise - after all you don't exactly expect to open a bag and find a cat jump out. The idiom originates from the trick of substituting a cat for a pig at markets. If you let the cat out of the bag you disclosed the trick or secret - and avoided buying a pig in a poke, another word for bag. Example: Why did you let the cat out of the bag? Now everyone knows!
Nice and colourfulSome idioms are nice and colourful; others are more idiotic than idiomatic. Don't underestimate idioms though - you'll hear them used a lot in business, so get used to them. Even if you don't use idioms yourself, you need to understand them. Sometimes they'll be clear from the context, sometimes not.

Extract from knowhowe.wetpaint.com/page/Idiomatic+English