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Common Idiomatic Expressions

The document discusses several common English idiomatic expressions and their meanings. It explains that idioms are expressions where the literal meaning differs from the intended figurative meaning. It then provides examples of popular idioms like "break a leg" meaning good luck, "costs an arm and a leg" meaning very expensive, "when pigs fly" meaning never, "hit the nail on the head" meaning to be precisely accurate, "you can't judge a book by its cover" meaning don't make assumptions without sufficient information, and "bite off more than you can chew" meaning to take on more than one can handle.

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Michael Dennis Mendoza
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58 views

Common Idiomatic Expressions

The document discusses several common English idiomatic expressions and their meanings. It explains that idioms are expressions where the literal meaning differs from the intended figurative meaning. It then provides examples of popular idioms like "break a leg" meaning good luck, "costs an arm and a leg" meaning very expensive, "when pigs fly" meaning never, "hit the nail on the head" meaning to be precisely accurate, "you can't judge a book by its cover" meaning don't make assumptions without sufficient information, and "bite off more than you can chew" meaning to take on more than one can handle.

Uploaded by

Michael Dennis Mendoza
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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An idiom is an expression whose literal meaning differs from the intended (figurative)

meaning. For example, if an American student says that an exam was “a piece of
cake,” s/he means the test was very easy (not that the exam was a literal dessert
pastry). Or imagine you are preparing to give a presentation to an important client. A
little bit nervous, you go over your outline in the break room. Just as you’re about to
leave and face your audience, your best friend at work shouts a cryptic sentence in an
eerily cheery tone:

“Break a leg!”
No, they’re not hoping you fracture your tibia–they’re wishing you good luck! (Why
“break a leg?” It’s unclear, but some believe it resulted from a superstition against
wishing someone good luck).

Here are five more popular idiomatic expressions English language learners might
encounter in the United States.

1. “Costs an arm and a leg”


Speaking of legs… If something is so expensive that it shocks you, it is common to say
that, “It costs an arm and a leg.” It’s almost like saying that you can’t pay it so if feels
as if you would almost have to give your limbs in order to afford the item. For example, if
you see a phone that normally costs $100 on sale for $700, you might say it costs “an
arm and a leg.”

2. “When pigs fly”


Think about the last time you saw a pig fly. We’re going to go ahead and assume you
have never witnessed such a spectacle. So if someone tells you, “When pigs fly,” they
are trying to tell you that it will never happen. For instance, if a boy walks up to a girl
and he asks her on a date, she might say, “When pigs fly.” Not the nicest way to reject
someone, of course, but you get the idea. It’s never going to happen.

3. “Hit the nail on the head”


The head of a nail is the flat part you strike with a hammer. Hit it the head accurately,
and the nail goes in straight and true. That’s the literal meaning of hitting a nail on the
head. The figurative (intended) meaning is to be precisely accurate. Say you and your
friend are playing a game in which you describe a picture that you see behind your
friend and your friend has to guess what it is you’re describing. You begin describing,
and your friend guesses correctly. “You hit the nail on the head!” you might say. That
means that the answer is correct, and precisely so.

4. “You can’t judge a book by its cover.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mxVXJ-


-1HY

When you look at a book, at times you won’t know if it is a good or bad read. You might
see an eye-catching, beautifully designed cover and we assume it’s a great book. But
maybe it’s horribly written. Or you might see a terrible cover and we think the book must
be terrible, too. But maybe it’s masterfully executed. The same principle applies to
anything, any person, any situation. The figurative (intended) meaning of the expression
is, acquire information before making a snap judgement. A frowning woman with a
hardened face might be a mean person. Or she may have just lost a family member.
Someone may have stolen all of her belongings. What appears to be true on the surface
and what is actually true are often two different things. You can’t judge a book by its
cover.

5. “Bite off more than you can chew”


Have you ever literally bitten off more than you can chew? It’s not a comfortable
feeling.(If you’re not too careful, you’ll choke). Same goes for life. As an idiom, to bite
off more than you can chew means to take on more responsibility than you can
handle, whether at work, in school, or at home. If you already work 80 hours per week,
for example, and you want to start your own business on the side, you’re probably biting
off more than you can chew. Similarly, the idiom can also mean to challenge a much
stronger or skilled opponent. A German Shepard that attacks a mountain lion will quickly
discover it has bitten off more than it can chew.

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