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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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…
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Dear Greg and Ivy
Hi, I find that the English idioms are as humourous as chinese idioms! I feel they are very interesting!
I will keep looking! I’m looking forward to the new idioms!
Yesterday, when all of my roommates came back at night, we had a talk. When it came to us talking about our parents, I made a joke. I said, “Our college studies will cost our parents an arm and a leg !” At first we all thought it was a bit funny. However, later we felt a touch of sadness. At that moment, we made up our minds to work hard forever!
important & interesting
Hi Muhammad, We’re happy that you find this series important and interesting. Please let us know if you’d like us to feature any particular idiom.
Good work, Nancy. Your example is a good one. We’re sure that your hard work would be a good reward for your parents. Maybe you can buy your parents a few things that cost an arm and a leg!
Nancy, we’ll keep putting up posts on new idioms. We’re really happy that you’re looking forward to these.
very nice idom and spoken english it is very good idom
Thank you Liaqat, we hope to add more to this section soon.
What a nice website to improving English.
Dialogue
Me: How much was your wedding ring?
My friend: It did cost my husband an arm and a leg.
By the way, may I ask what ‘s the most important thing in learning English? I found there are so many things that we need to improve and it is quite easy to lose myself.