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Mutton dressed as lamb: when it comes to idioms, what you see isn’t what you get.

Let’s face it, idioms are confusing. While a language learner might understand every single word of an expression taken together, the sentence makes no sense. Like the idiom, “get my goat.” What first comes to mind—snatching a neighbor’s goat or feeling irritated? It’s the latter and clearly, goats have got nothing to do with it!

Idioms exist in every language, providing insight into how foreign speakers think. They are colourful, murky (how do they originate?) and also, fun to learn. Some idioms are similar across cultures and easily translated, while others just aren’t. For example, in English we can sleep like a baby, a log or even a dog, but in Dutch, it’s a rose (begging the question: do flowers sleep?) and in German, a woodchuck (which arguably does.) Equally in Dutch, you sweat carrots but in English, we sweat like a pig (which does very little sweating. With idioms, language really comes alive.

Advanced English students want to understand and put idioms into use, which isn’t easy. The good thing is if you make a mistake, you’ll be corrected immediately. The bad side is you’ll probably make the mistake more than once and have to persist until you get it right. It takes years to use idioms correctly because they are so particular—and peculiar.

English is full of idioms, and here are a choice few:

  1. Mutton dressed as lamb, which refers to a middle-aged woman who tries to look younger by dressing that way. Think for example of a middle aged female rock star in a pleather miniskirt you’ll know what I mean…
  2. Champ at the bit, which means being eager (and impatient) to start an activity. For example, after numerous delays, EasyJet passengers were champing at the bit to get home.
  3. Unvarnished truth, which refers to giving someone the plain facts without trying to soften them. The Dutch are very good and doing this but in English, we reserve such outright candor for young and terribly old people. For example, when the doctor called him into he office, he gave the patient the unvarnished truth.
  4. Let cat out of the bag, which means unintentionally revealing a secret. For example, we planned a surprise birthday party for Nanda, but someone let the cat out of the bag.
  5. A wet blanket is someone who spoils other people’s fun. For example, most of us have a relative who’s a wet blanket, always ruining a perfectly good family get-together.

Useful link

http://www.smart-words.org/quotes-sayings/idioms-meaning.html


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