The Importance of Idiomatic Expressions

Idiomatic expressions are a very important element of learning a foreign language. No matter how well you can speak or how much vocabulary you know, idiomatic expressions can never be translated literally; that’s why it is too difficult to find out what people are saying if you don’t already know the meaning of these commonly used phrases.

Even if you know the meaning of every word you see or hear, you may not understand the idiom because you don't understand the culture behind it. Idiomatic expressions don’t apply to every English speaking country: England, Canada and Australia have their own idiomatic expressions that don’t necessarily apply in the United States. Most of the idiomatic expressions have some place in history where they originated; find out when and how some of the most common idiomatic expressions were born here: http://www.idiomsite.com/ and check out this extensive list of idiomatic expressions in alphabetical order or by country at http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/

-Written by Patricia Griffith