English idioms can be a tricky thing to understand. The basic meaning of an idiom cannot be translated directly from its literal translation. For the example of “kick the bucket“, in English means to die. However the same expression in Polish is (kopnąć w kalendarz) “to kick the calendar“, and the Dutch expression being (het loodje leggen) “to lay the piece of lead“. As you can see by the idiom expressions from different languages, idioms themselves cannot necessarily be taken in a literal translation.
It is believed that an idiom is a colloquial metaphor, which simply means that, to understand the true meaning of a particular idiom, one must be able to understand the culture from which the idiom derives. The idioms within a certain culture have been borne of single words that are put together and rarely, if ever, change. So over time, those words are grouped together and their lose significant meanings,and gain an overall and sometimes quite different meaning altogether.
But we believe that you can learn these idioms and be able to use them in your everyday English. Remember that they are just like vocabulary words to learn. Once you understand their meanings, these idioms will be second nature to you. Just like they are to me!
Listen to idiom examples in the following pages. We have native English speakers from America talking about idioms.
These are stories that teach idioms using examples. Learn the meaning of idioms and hear idiom definitions.
You’ll hear idiom examples like, “Tom doesn’t want to admit he’s lost, he has his head in the sand.” This means Tom was trying to avoid a disagreeable situation by pretending it didn’t exist.
Or this idiom example, “You kids put a lid on it, your father is sleeping.” Put a lid on it means to quiet down.
You can listen to these idioms arranged by color, numbers, animals, body parts, etc. These idiom examples will teach you the meaning of idioms.
