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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!
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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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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