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

Learn Some Cliches

The English language is very rich in idomatic sayings. Many of these come from literature and have become cliches, but it is still good to know a few of these and enjoy learning to use and understand them.

The Cliche Finder site can help you to find new cliche or idioms based around a keyword, or you can just select 10 idioms at random.

Task:

• Go to: http://www.westegg.com/cliche/
• Either type in a keyword such as 'Love' or 'Hand'
  
  OR
  
  
• Click to select 10 random cliches by clicking on 'See Ten Random Cliches'
  

• Once you have 10 cliches that you like, go to the Cambridge English Online Dictionary and check the meaning of the expressions: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/

• You do this by typing in the idiom and then clicking on 'Look it up' You then select your idiom and click.

• Make a note of ten new idioms / cliches and what they mean.
• If you want to try to remember these you could create a video record of each one by using one of the activities from last month: Creating a Video Vocabulary Record
  

I hope you enjoy this activity and it makes you 'as happy as a clam'!

Come back for more tomorrow EFL ESL activities.

Related links for teachers:

• Prompting reading speeds
• Animating vocabulary
• Interactive multiple choice activities
• Picture phrases
• Video Dictionary 2.0

Best

Nik Peachey