What are Idioms in English?
Can you think of anything that gives naturalness to your spoken and written English? Your answer may be “accent?” or pronunciation? or the way of speaking? Well, all the answers may be correct depending on the fact that there are a lot of things that make your sound natural when you speak in English.
However, to be more precise, you can say that it is the idiomatic expression that can make your English natural. Using idioms, phrases and proverbs in your speech and writing can make you sound natural. While it’s true that accent, pronunciation and the certain way of speaking English all contribute to natural English, idioms and idiomatic expressions also contribute to making your English natural.
What is an idiom exactly?, why is it important that you need to learn idioms in English? and what’s the relevance of idioms in English? Well, to answer these questions, we need to dedicate some paragraphs to defining idioms and idiomatic expressions. Here is the detailed description about idioms in English:
Definition of Idioms
An idiom is a phrase or group of words that expresses a figurative which is used and understood by a certain group of people. Idioms have a group of words whose meanings are individually different from what they mean in group; that is, each word in an idiomatic expression gives a different, but they express a figurative meaning when all the words are put together in group.
You can’t forget that idioms are really common in English; you will encounter when listening to and reading English. In every community, there are certain idiomatic expressions that are commonly used and understood by that community; that is, only that particular community understands those expressions, and others need to learn them.
It’s worth mentioning that idioms express metaphorical or figurative meanings; that is, idioms don’t mean what they appear to mean. For example, the idiomatic expression “once in a blue moon” gives you a figurative meaning, a meaning which is different from the apparent meaning.
In “once in a blue moon,” each word individually gives you a literal meaning but in the combination the entire idiom means a different thing. Thus, the idiom means “very rarely” which can’t be expressed when you look at the words in the phrase individually, and this is what we call figurative or implied meaning.
How to Learn Idioms?
- Refer to online resources: In this age of digitalization, it’s really easy to get materials for whatever topic you are looking for on the internet. Visit the authoritative websites for quality materials for your topics. Many quality works have been published on the internet and are accessible free of cost.
- Read physical books: Often reading online materials can lead to different physical problems such as eye problem or mental health issue. Therefore, you need to learn from physical books. Prefer a limited range of physical books for a particular topic.
- Listen to native speakers: Native speakers use idioms in context; therefore, learning from them is a good idea, because you will come to learn idioms that are used in context. So, listen to native speakers’ natural conversations. They use the idioms in a proper context.
What are Phrasal Verbs?
Phrases are a special type of verb that consists of a preposition (as in look at ) or adverb (as in look down) or both (as in look down on). Phrasal verbs act as verbs to express a special meaning; that is, they give you a different meaning from what it means individually.
Phrases are really important when it comes ot informal communication. When you have conversation with your friends, relatives or collegues, you are not supposed to use formal verbs but rather you would like to use informal verbs, and phrasal verbs are just informal verbs that you can use to make your conversation informal and natural.
How to Learn Phrasal Verbs?
- Pick up the most common verbs: There are thousands of phrasal verbs in English. It’s not possible to learn them all by heart. Therefore, you will want to pick up the list of the most common and relevant phrasal verbs and then dedicate your time to memorizing them.
- Group them by meaning: Phrasal verbs are very tricky. You know the individual word withing a phrasal verb, but you can’t tell the meaning. As such, it’s the best idea to group those phrasal verbs by meaning in order to recognize them properly without any difficulty.
- Use them in right context: Learning phrasal verbs by heart is not sufficient. You need to focus on the utilization of them. Therefore, you will want to use the phrasal verbs in your everyday coversations in order to ingrain them into your long term memory and enable yourself to find them without a problem.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Introduction
Business Idioms A – Z
Idioms by type
Economic and regulatory idioms
Money / pay / financing idioms
Working style and practices
Business operations
Communication / leadership / management styles / decision making
Types of business / business people
More English books
Summary: Business English Idioms and Phrasal Verbs
Learning business English idioms and phrasal verbs can be a tricky task. However, you can learn them with dedication and hardwork plus smartwork. Apart from using the resources that are availabe on the internet for learning idioms and phrasal verbs, you should be using physical books that can speed up your learning process.
As has been said already that the task of learning Business idioms and phrasal verbs can be tricky, you will want to have patience, maintain dedication and retain perseverance in order to speed up the learning journey. Make sure that you follow the methods of learning idioms and phrasal verbs mentioned in the post.
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