You may put away your clothes, put forward a proposal, or put up with a delay. Each expression begins with put, but the added particle or preposition changes both its meaning and grammar pattern. Many two-word phrasal verbs with put…
You may look up the word or look the word up, but you must look after the child, not look the child after. Both expressions contain a verb followed by a short word, yet their grammar is different. In look…
You may look forward to a holiday, put up with a delay, or talk someone out of making a rushed decision. Each expression contains three main words, but the noun or pronoun does not always appear in the same position.…
You may turn off the light or turn the light off, but you must look after the child, not look the child after. The object changes position because turn off is separable in this meaning, while look after is inseparable.…
Food idioms use familiar foods, ingredients, and eating actions to describe ideas that often have nothing to do with meals. They may express ease, difficulty, success, disagreement, pressure, personality, or emotion. For example, calling an explanation clear as consommé would…
Color idioms use familiar colors to express emotions, warnings, opportunities, uncertainty, behavior, and other ideas. Their meanings are usually figurative rather than connected to an object’s actual color. For example, describing a proposal as a yellow light suggests caution rather…
Money idioms help you describe earning, spending, saving, paying, and financial pressure in a more vivid way. Some refer to everyday household costs, while others appear more often in business, work, or accounting. For example, saying that a new laptop…
Animal idioms use the traits, behavior, or appearance of animals to describe people and everyday situations. Someone may be called a dark horse because their abilities are not widely known, while a difficult topic everyone avoids may be described as…
Time idioms help you talk about deadlines, delays, frequency, waiting, and how quickly or slowly time seems to pass. Some are strongly figurative, while others are fixed expressions commonly taught with time-related idioms. For example, the clock is ticking does…