learning english idioms
language is a living thing. living things grow and change, so does language.
present-day english is also growing and changing. many hundreds of english
idioms have come down to us. to chinese students, english idioms are an
important but difficult part of the english vocabulary because on one hand, learning
and using idioms is the best way to master the language, on the other hand,
english idioms usually have peculiar meanings, different structures and continue
to change, which makes chinese students observe carefully and practice everyday
when learning them.
what is idiom?
- idioms nominal in nature
idioms of this class have a noun as the key word in each and function as noun in sentences, e.g.
narrow escape
english idioms are a kind of special speech forms that is peculiar in meaning, grammatical
structure and usage. very often, the meaning of an idiom is opaque. so it is not easy to be
deduced from the literal meaning of is component words. for example, to fall out means
'to quarrel', but neither 'fall' nor 'out' has a sense of quarrel. another example is a feather
in one's cap, which means 'an honor or a success, of which one can be proud', as in
"it is a feather in your cap, for a young man like you should have been appointed as the
head of the office". the meaning of this idiom is a metaphorical one. under the rose is
also very difficult to be understood from the literal meanings of its component words.
its true meaning is 'secretly', as in "the conspiracy was hatched under the rose."
to have a bee in one's bonnet means 'to have a strange fixed idea about something,'
as in "he has a bee in his bonnet about becoming a manager." it is impossible to
explain the idiom form the original meaning of the individual words.
some idioms consist of obsolete words. as a result, it is more difficult to know the meaning,
for the words that appear in the idioms cannot be seen in common available reading materials.
for instance, hither and thither means "in all directions", as in "he rove hither and thither
in the park every sunday." 'hither' and 'thither' are the words we will never see or use in
our daily life. other examples are to and fro, kith and kin, learn by rote, etc.
perhaps, many chinese students could not figure out the connection of the definite idea
this idiom suggests with either bee or bonnet or both, nor could they know the meaning
of obsolete words in the certain idioms. it's regretful to say that there is no shortcut for
chinese students to memorize this kind of idioms. the better way is to prepare a notebook,
on which are the idioms you meet when reading and hearing and, more important, the examples.
but most english idioms are usually made of commonly used words. they are vivid in usage,
brief in structure and profound in meaning. for example, the meaning of to cry for the moon
can be easily guessed from the words, which means 'to desire strongly something that
cannot be gained. and to put the cart before the horse means 'to reverse proper order,
take effect for cause’. its meaning is very visual, which is also helpful for chinese students
to memorize their meanings.
