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…
An idiom is a fixed expression whose intended meaning is different from the literal meaning of its words. A proverb is a familiar saying that communicates advice, wisdom, a warning, or a general observation. For example, pull someone’s leg is…
Not every question is asked because someone needs an answer. When a parent says, “Do you think money appears by magic?” the parent is not asking for a real explanation. The question is making a point. It means money should…
Climax is a figure of speech where words, phrases, or ideas are arranged in rising order of importance. Each part becomes stronger than the one before it. For example, you might say, She wanted a chance, a voice, and a…