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How do you actually learn idioms and phrases



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Sun May 04, 2014 2:37 pm
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dhyan says...



There are many phrases and idioms we love reading but we don't know how to use them.

By which process do you actually learn them. So they become part of you?

What methods do you use?

And how do you decide which phrases and idioms you will learn?
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Thu Jun 19, 2014 4:40 pm
dragonfphoenix says...



Well, sticking strictly to English....
I can't say I really set out to learn idioms. When I do, it's Google to the rescue, and then I ask my friends/family if they've ever heard x phrase before. Most of the time, I pick up a phrase because someone else says it, and then it sticks out enough in my mind that I remember it. (So basically my idioms are auditory in origin.)
If you want to know how to use a written idiom (say an invented one), hunt down the fandom for that series/novel. If you ask the fans how they think it should be used, they will be falling over each other to try to help you. They may not always agree, but you'll get a good idea of ways it can be used. Examining the actual literature/story for how it's used in context can also be extremely helpful.

Try experimenting with the phrase out loud and see how it feels. Most of the time, your ear will know better than your mental voice how something should be used. If it doesn't sound quite right, play around with it a little. (Worse comes to worst, ask a grammarian for their opinion. :D )

Hope that helps!
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Thu Jun 19, 2014 6:00 pm
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niteowl says...



Honestly, I'm not sure I ever tried to learn idioms in English. I probably picked them up from other people using them around me. I might have asked what they meant when I was little, but now I just use context clues and such.

One English phrase that tends to confuse me is the phrase "all but". Take the example sentence: "With only 10 birds left in the wild, the majestic Royal Bluebird is all but extinct." Literally, something being "all but" gone would mean it's the opposite of gone. Yet since it just said there are only 10 birds, the phrase is the same as saying "These birds have basically died out". I never quite understood the origin of this usage, but seeing it in this context several times convinced me the non-literal interpretation was correct.

I don't know if native English speakers "choose" what phrases they learn. It's mostly based on what we hear around us. This might not just be from the place we live, but also people we know. Like I had a college roommate who described things as "sketch" instead of shady or sketchy. I use that phrase now even though I never did before.
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Fri Jun 20, 2014 10:33 am
crossroads says...



"All but gone" in that sense would be "so close to extinction there's nothing left for them but to disappear (unless something drastically changes)".

For me, English not being my first language, it was relatively simple because we learned some idioms and phrases in school. We even compared them with our own so I know which translates as which. There are still times when I don't know, though, because we simply couldn't cover everything and there are things native speakers say which isn't even official enough to get into textbooks. Sometimes I translate the phrase from my own language, and English either doesn't have such a thing at all or it's different, and I find that quite interesting to play with.

Perhaps if you wish to learn idioms at a specific time, instead of searching around for them like the others said above, try with ESL books. I'm pretty sure there are some focused completely on idioms and phrases, and those books are usually fully in English so you can understand it even if you don't speak any other language.
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