Find Idioms in Everyday Language

The English language has a huge number of idioms and this number seems to be constantly growing. You have to be careful how and when you use these idioms, as many are used in very specific contexts.


Today's activity will help you discover how and where new idioms are used.

Task:

• Go to the IdiomSite at: http://www.idiomsite.com/. Here you will see an index of idioms. You can either scroll down the idioms or select a letter from the alphabet.

• The idiom site tells you what each idiom means, but it is really useful to find out how these are used in context.
• Go to: http://www.americancorpus.org/ and click enter. Type in your idiom to the 'Words' field then click on 'Search' You will then see the idiom appear on the right.
  

• Click on the idiom and you will get a list of example sentences that use the idiom.

• If you click on the source of the sentence, you will be able to see it in a complete paragraph.

• This is a great way to find examples of idioms in use that you can copy and add to your vocabulary notes. Try to find 4 new idioms each day along with an example for each one.

I hope you enjoy this activity and it helps you to learn and remember new idioms. Here you can find more vocabulary activities.

Related links for teachers:

• Create Image Books
• Create a Flickr Montage
• Great Time Line Tool
• Create a YouTube Carousel
• Interactive presentations
• A Picture's worth
• Picture phrases
• Make Your EFL ESL Yearbook
• Personalised flashcards

Best

Nik Peachey