Sep 19, 2018
Some informal and idiomatic expressions in English just don't seem to make sense. In today’s lesson, I’ll explain four phrases that my students have asked me about:
- nothing to sneeze at
- there'll be hell to pay
- to each his own
- a far cry from
Don’t try to translate or understand these phrases literally – that’s a common mistake among language learners. If you try to understand it word by word, it won’t make sense. Instead, you need to understand each phrase as a whole unit, with a particular meaning.
Lesson text: https://www.espressoenglish.net/four-english-expressions-that-dont-seem-to-make-sense/
You can see how each of these expressions is difficult to
understand by itself, but easier to learn if you have an example
situation where it would be used.
This is why I highly recommend learning phrases in context, not
just trying to memorize lists of phrases and definitions, and
my Everyday English Speaking
Course Level 2 can help you do that.
The lessons are based on more advanced conversations that are
full of expressions like these. You can click
here for a free sample.