The full version of this idiom is ‘being all ears‘ and it is often used in conversation. Have you come across it before?

See if you can guess the meaning from the following dialogue…

Tim: Mike, I’ve got some good news to tell you.
Mike: Go on. I’m all ears.
Tim: I just heard that we’ll have a holiday tomorrow.
Mike: That’s great news!

In this situation, Mike is telling Tim that he’s ready to listen to what Tim is going to tell him. In other words, you can use it to express the idea that you have now started to pay attention to what the other person is going to say.

Photo Credit: Agastecheg

We’ll now look at some examples for using the ‘all ears’ idiom.

1. Children, I want you to be all ears to what I’m about to say, because it’s really important.
2. When it comes to money, Jerry is all ears.

Conversation example
Sandy: Toni, I’ve got some news about Mary.
Toni: About Mary? Tell me, I’m all ears.
Sandy: When Mary came running yesterday with a big grin on her face, I was all ears. You know, I could tell she was about to tell us something big.  Then she surprised us all by saying that she’s getting married!
Toni: Wow! It’s fantastic news, but I still can’t believe it. Is she getting married soon?
Sandy: Yes.  Next month in Hawaii!
Toni: Oh, I’m so happy for her.

Now it’s your turn to think of some examples for this idiom…good luck!

Students of spoken English often wish for a more complex vocabulary, believing that by using long words in their conversation, others might consider them as being ‘well educated’, and perhaps even a little ‘intelligent’.

Maybe this is true with certain people, but we would like you to consider the argument for striving for ‘simplicity’ and ‘ease of understanding’.

Getting others to understand your ideas, thoughts and feelings is not an easy thing to do; even for native speakers.  By keeping things simple, clear and precise, we encourage greater understanding.

Here’s a quote from the chapter ‘The Case for Short Words’ from Richard Lederer’s book ‘The Miracle of Language’ (page 34).  It gives us some good advice:
“Here is a sound rule: Use small, old words where you can.  If a long word says just what you want to say, do not fear to use it.  But know that our tongue (spoken English) is rich in crisp, brisk, swift, short words.  Make them the spine and the heart of what you speak and write.  Short words are like fast friends.  They will not let you down.”

When considering ‘keywords’ that best express your ideas, thoughts and feelings, try giving preference to ‘small, old words (well known and commonly used words)’, and strive for better understanding.

Photo Credit:  Sebastian Fissore

Conversation practice is the single most important exercise for the student of spoken English.

If you are not having regular conversation practice, then you are seriously hindering your progress.

Prepare subjects for conversation and then make ‘appointments’ with other students for conversation practise on those subjects: at least 3 conversations, with 3 different people, on each subject.

Spoken English is a ‘practical’ skill; like playing basketball or playing the guitar.  Unless there is practical application there will be no progress!

TAKE ACTION!  DO IT NOW!

Photo Credit:  Claudia Veja

Students of English often have problems with their pronunciation in relation to word endings (suffixes).

In this article we are going to look at how to pronounce some words that end with the letters ‘ge‘.

Can you think of a few words with this ending (suffix)?

There must be many words that come to mind…

We’re not going to look at the pronunciation of all of them because as you may know, they don’t all have the same pronunciation.  In this post we’ll focus on just one kind of ‘ge‘ pronunciation.

Here’s the list of the words that we are looking at – ‘message‘, ‘passage‘, ‘college‘, ‘manage‘,  ‘damage‘, ‘salvage‘, ‘bandage‘ and ‘large‘.

Listen carefully to the recording… and practise!  Each word will be pronounced once slowly and twice at the normal speed.

Listen and practise until you can get it right! Perhaps you can also think of other words with the same kind of ending!!

This idiom is a commonly used one.  Perhaps you have heard it before.  Do you know its meaning? If someone told you the sentence, “Oh, I’m over the moon today”, what would they mean?

For those of you who are not sure about the meaning, it means that that person is so happy (very happy, overjoyed).

Here are some examples…

I got my exam result this morning.  You know, I’m simply over the moon about it.  I can’t wait to tell my parents the good news.

Vincent is over the moon these days.  He just bought a new house.

Here’s a conversation example…

Photo Credit: A. Feldmann

Sheila: Jane, I’ve got some good news to tell you.

Jane: Really? I can’t wait.

Sheila: I’ve just been promoted! I’m now the head of the Sales Department at our headquarters.

Jane: Congratulations! I’m so happy for you.  You must be over the moon!

Sheila: Thanks.  Yes.   I guess I am over the moon.  You know, I’ve waited for this to happen for so long.  I still can’t believe that it’s finally happened.

Extra idiom practice…

There is a similar idiom which can be substituted for this one in sentences.  Can you guess it?

It’s ‘on cloud nine‘.  In fact, you can put ‘on cloud nine‘ in all of the above examples and still keep the original meaning.

Well, it’s now your turn to add some examples.  You’ve got two idioms to practise this time.  Keep them coming!

If you want to ask somebody about their opinion on a particular subject,  how would you ask the question?

Let’s imagine that you want to ask someone’s opinion about  ‘surfing’… how would you ask their opinion?

We’re sure that you can think of at least one way to put forward the question…

Can you think of a few different ways?  How did you go?

Maybe we can help you out -

Here are a few ways you can ask the question.

The usual ways…

1. What’s your opinion on surfing?
2. What are your views on surfing?
3. What’s your perspective on surfing?
4. How do you consider surfing?

More casual ways…

1. What do you think about surfing?
2. How do you feel about surfing?
3. What would you say about surfing?
4. What’s your take on surfing?
5. How do you see surfing?

Particular kind of opinion…

1. What’s your honest opinion about surfing?
2. Would you tell me your informed opinions on surfing?
3. Please tell me your personal opinions about surfing…

As you can see,  there are so many ways to ask someone about their opinion.

Can you think of any other way to ask someone for their opinion on a subject?

It’s possible that you’ve heard this idiom in the news in recent times… Have you heard it before? If you have heard it before, do you know what it means?

Photo Credit: Sanja Gjenero

We’ll give you an example… see if you can work out the meaning.

“The President elect, Mr. Obama and his new administration team, would have to hit the ground running when he takes office this month, in order to tackle the enormous challenges facing the US right now.”

Have you guessed the meaning now? For those who are not sure, ‘hit the ground running’ means, to start working on something (activity, task, project) immediately and successfully.

Let’s look at some examples…

“Tom, I’m going to have to hit the ground running when I start the new term at school.  We have so many important exams coming up in this term.”

“If you want to do well in your new job, you need to hit the ground running, from the first day at work.”

Conversation example

Jill: Mum, would you like to go shopping with me this moring?

Mum: I’d love to, Jill, but I’m afraid I can’t.  I’m going to have to hit the ground running on this project this weekend, to have any chance of finishing it by Monday.

Jill: What a pity! I was really hoping that you’ll go with me.

Mum: I’m really sorry.  I’ll try and make it up to you next week.

Well, it’s now your turn…  See if you can make your own examples and add them to the comments section below!

Out of the blue is a commonly used idiom. Do you know it?
It’s used to describe an event that happened (or is happening) unexpectedly, without warning or preparation.

Photo Credit: Christian Sherratt

Here are some examples:

“Out of the blue, my parents decided to buy me a brand new car for my birthday.  I’m so happy.”

“I hate it when out of the blue, things start going wrong.”

Conversation example

Jim: Melissa, you’ve been a good secretary at our company for two years now.  Unfortunately, I have to let you go. We’ll pay you 2 months salary.

Melissa: Do you mean that you’re firing me?

Jim: Yeah, I’m afraid so. Out of the blue, our company lost millions of dollars this week in the global financial crisis.  This has forced us to fire most of the staff.

Melissa: This is terrible! You know I really love this job.  This whole thing is out of the blue for me. I still can’t believe it.

Jim: I know…I’m really sorry.

See if YOU can create some examples like these…  after you have created them, you can write them in the comments section below!

Long-term, Intermediate Short-term Goals; the ‘Divide and Conquer’ Principle;
and the ‘To-do-list’…

Long-term Goals

Long-term goals are your dreams. The reason you are studying today has to be linked to some dream about how you want to spend your life. It is usually a career goal – something that will last much of your adult life. What vision of your life really grabs your imagination?  Imagine your life ten years from now. What do you want to be doing?

Intermediate (in between) Goals

Intermediate goals are usually for three to five years in the future and are one of the keys to achieving your long-term goals. For example, if you want to be an interpreter, then a necessary intermediate goal would be to master the required languages in the first place.

Short-term Goals

The steps toward your intermediate goal are a series of short-term goals, usually for six months to 2 years in the future.
Immediate Goals
You cannot master languages if you do not get today’s homework assignment completed to the very best of your ability. Immediate goals are those that lead to the accomplishment of short-term goals. This is where the principle of “divide and conquer” comes into play most strongly.

Divide & Conquer

Whenever you are faced with what seems to be too much work, take each big task and break it down into (divide it into) smaller pieces.  If those pieces still seem too big, then break those down too.  Keep doing that until you have a long list of tasks (things to do) – each of which you could start now and finish in an hour or even half an hour. This will help you to get the job done now. It will also help you see real progress and make you feel more in control of your situation.

A ‘To-do List’

When you write down your immediate goals (and please remember that you must always write down your goals), and put them in priority order (the order of importance), then you have created a ‘to-do list’ for today’s study. Every ‘immediate (study) goal’ that becomes part of your ‘to-do list’ must be -
• Specific (exact – not “do some studying”, but “to understand and be able to use 5 new English words”)
• Reasonable (something that can be done in 30 to 60 minutes)
• Verifiable (something that can be measured – you can tell when you’re finished)
• Rewarded (watching a little TV or a walk in the park – but finishing the task is the best reward)

Remember this. If you have work to do that you know is important to your goals then:

“just do it and do it now!”

People often use idioms in spoken English.  If you can learn to understand their meaning and learn how to use them, it can really boost your spoken English skills.

What’s an idiom?

First of all, you may be wondering…what’s an idiom? Well, an idiom is a phrase (group of words) where the exact meaning is not easily understood from the words used. We’ll show you what we mean with an example…

Photo credit: Hannah Boettcher

Example: ‘Cost (someone) an arm and a leg‘. Can you guess the meaning of this idiom?

Let’s imagine that your friend is showing you his new mobile phone (cell phone).

You: “How much did you pay for it?”
Your friend: “It cost me an arm and a leg!”
Is the meaning clearer to you now? When you look up the meaning of the idiom in a dictionary, you’ll find that it means ‘very expensive‘.  Did you guess it right?

You can also use this idiom in a sentence like this:
“The trip to Paris is going to cost me an arm and a leg.  I’ll have to save up for it!”

How to learn idioms…

Three things to remember when learning idioms:

1. Learn the meaning of the new idiom in English that you already understand – this helps you to get the full and actual meaning of the idiom, without an approximate translation.
2. Learn how to use the idiom in a particular situation (look at an example) – if you don’t know how to use the idiom, it’s useless to you.  It’s better not to use it if you can’t use it well.
3. Start using the idiom in conversation with others as soon as possible- ‘use it or lose it!’ – if you don’t start using it immediately you’ll soon forget it, and all the time you spent learning it would have been wasted.

We’ll be looking at some of the commonly used idioms, in a series of articles about idioms.  Keep visiting the site for more idioms…

While you’re here, see if you can add another short dialogue that uses the idiom, ‘cost (someone) an arm and a leg‘, in the comments section below…