What are idioms?

Almost every student I’ve had says something to the effect of, “I want to learn more idioms!” So, what exactly are idioms?

Idioms have three characteristics.

• They are a group (or pair) of words in a specific order that doesn’t change. The speaker will include the idiom as one fixed “chunk” of language into their speech or text.
• Their meaning is different from the individual words that form the phrase. In other words, you won’t be able to figure out the meaning of the idiom from the meaning of the individual words.
• They are usually specific to a certain language and can’t be translated word-by-word to another language.

I’ve seen English teaching websites, even reputable ones, that confuse idioms with other types of language, such as phrasal verbs,  proverbs, or popular sayings.

For example, the following question was part of an “idiom quiz” at one website.

Why can’t you _______ this problem? It’s really not that difficult.

a.  figure out     b. get into     c. go over     d. hold on to

The correct choice is a. figure out, but “figure out” is NOT an idiom; it’s a phrasal verb. The words DON’T follow a set order, because you could just as correctly say, “Why can’t you figure this problem out?”

Proverbs and popular sayings aren’t idioms because you can usually figure out what they mean from looking at the words. Also, you can often find the exact same proverb or saying in another language.

Proverbs are “wise sayings” that offer some sort of advice or express a belief that is generally thought to be true. Often, my students tell me that they have a similar proverb, or a saying that expresses a similar idea in their own language. For example,

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Two wrongs don’t make a right.

A friend in need is a friend indeed.

Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.

There are other popular sayings that may not be quite so “wise” and thus, I wouldn’t exactly call them proverbs. Here are two saying that are frequently used in my family.

Finders keepers, losers weepers

I used this today when my son found a $10 bill outside on the curb. Since it would be impossible to find the owner (the loser of the money), my son can keep the money. It’s not a “wise” saying, because in many cases, a person could in fact, with a bit of effort, find the loser of the item, and that would be the right thing to do.

You snooze, you lose

There are four coffee drinkers in my family and one 12-cup coffee pot. So the last person up in the morning (the snoozer) ends up having to make another pot of coffee. This saying doesn’t apply just to literal sleep … it basically means you need to pay attention or you may miss a good opportunity.

Now that we know what idioms are NOT, what are some examples of common English idioms? Here are just a few of the many hundreds that we use all the time.

Keep talking … I’m all ears.

It’s time to call it a day … we’ll work on this project tomorrow.

That party was so much fun … we all had a blast.

That test was a piece of cake … I’m sure I got an A.

He’s such a couch potato … as soon as he gets home, he just grabs a snack and watches Netflix for hours.

Because there are so many idiomatic expressions in English, the task of learning them might seem almost impossible. I’ll give you some advice about that in the next article.