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Idioms are often tested in my country’s Primary School Leaving Exam. So, I have a vested interest in using them in front of my students so that they absorb idioms into their repertoire of words.
Another reason is that I find that they lack the stamina to sustain their attention for a one-hour lesson. So, I thought that a fun brain break would be idiom-related dingbats. Stuff like let the cat out of the bag. Show a dingbat to them and see if anyone manages to figure it out.
Which leads to this question: do you use idioms in your everyday life? If so, what? Foreign idioms are more than welcome!
I use them all the time, and they are all really old. No one knows what the hell I'm talking about. Mostly they are ones I heard as a child from my older relatives that stuck with me. Now I can't recall many. Here are a few:
"That guy isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer."
"That guy is a little light in the loafers."
"That guy? The lights are on but nobody's home."
"That guy? The elevator doesn't go to the top floor."
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I have heard of the first and third idioms!
Any Italian idioms that you sometimes use?
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24 sats \ 1 reply \ @siggy47 26 Aug
I don't know Italian, but my Italian grandmother had a bunch that she would translate for me. The only ones that comes to mind is "when you walk with a cripple, you become crippled" and "a fish stinks from the head first."
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I find all these very intriguing! Thanks for sharing
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Here are some idioms used in my country.
"She put both his feet in one shoe" - She pressured him harshly. "He became a rabbit" - He ran away, disappeared. "He put his tail between his legs" - He left ashamed, defeated. "He ate a door" -He wasn’t let in, got rejected. "Bread and salt"-Symbol of friendship and hospitality. "He washed them black" -He took them secretly, under the table (undeclared) "The train left him"-He missed the opportunity "He put water in his wine"-He compromised "He acted like a duck"-He pretended not to know
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So interesting! Thanks for the rich examples. And what language is this in, may I ask?
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in the Greek language
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I like "picking up pennies in front of a steamroller". Both the idom and doing it. Even though I know I shouldn't. Just can't resist. Shiny pennies.
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I have never heard of this!
But I’m like you. I’m not beneath picking up petty coins. If it helps to subsidise my daily cup of coffee, why not?
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