Why do you need to learn idioms?

Answer 1

An idiom is a phrase which cannot be understood by just looking at the words. You need to learn them because you cannot figure them out any other way!

Let me give you some examples - see if you can understand this paragraph (I'll put the answers at the bottom for you, but try it alone first)

Pull your finger out! I'm no agony aunt, so don't spit the dummy. And don't tell me you've a hitch in your giddy-up or I'll take the Mick. You thought it was all beer and skittles, right; you're in your salad days? Well, you'll be thick as mince if you don't know the difference between "up the stick" and "up sticks!" Are you all mouth and trousers or all hat and no cattle? Would you say you're a man of parts, a man of the cloth, a man of letters, the man on the Clapham omnibus, or the Vicar of Bray? You might just be a young turk, or hairy at the heel! All and sundry is going to go all pear-shaped if you don't wise up. Well, I suppose she'll be apples.

Hmmm ... still think you don't need to learn idioms?

How many of those did you know? Did you try to look any of the words up? Didn't work, did it?

Unless you know an idiom, you can't look it up by defining the words - after all, people who die don't really kick a bucket, and cats and dogs don't really fall out of the sky in a heavy rain.

Idioms are just part of the language that you have to memorize so that you can understand what people are saying. Like slang, they change and shift meaning as people develop new ways of saying things.

What's that? You want to know what the paragraph means?

If you click on the Related Question below, you can find links to the websites that I used to find some of those obscure idioms, by the way!

Here are the meanings of the idioms I used above:

• Pull your finger out - hurry up!
• Agony Aunt - the writer of a newspaper column where people write in and complain about their lives
• Spit the dummy - whine and cry and give up
• A hitch in your giddy-up - not feeling well
• Take the Mick (or take the Mickey) - to tease
• All beer and skittles - all fun and games
• Salad days - the best days of your life
• Thick as mince (or just thick) - not very smart at all
• Up the stick (or up the duff) - pregnant
• Up sticks - to leave
• All mouth and trousers - all talk and no action
• All hat and no cattle - the American version of the above!
• Man of parts - someone who can do many different things
  
• Man of the cloth - a clergyman
  
• Man of letters - an educated man
  
• Man on the Clapham omnibus - the average citizen
  
• Vicar of Bray - a braggart
• Young turk - a rebel
  
• Hairy at the heel - someone who is untrustworthy
• All and sundry - everything
  
• All pear-shaped - all wrong
• Wise up - get some sense or understand something
  
• She'll be apples - everything will turn out for the best