Idioms Organiser

CONTENTS
Introductory Unit 7
Section 1: Areas of Metaphor
1 Time is Money 12
2 Business is War 14
3 Seeing is Understanding 16
4 Life is a Journey 18
5 Life is Gambling 20
6 A Company is a Ship 22
7 Moods are Weather 24
8 The Office is a Battlefield 26
9 A Project is a Race 28
10 Economics is Flying 30
11 Organisations are Gardens 32
12 People are Liquid 34
13 Review Unit 36
Section 2: Individual Metaphors
14 Animal Idioms 38
15 Bird Idioms 40
16 Body Idioms 42
17 Breaking Idioms 44
18 Building Idioms 46
19 Cat Idioms 48
20 Clothes Idioms 50
21 Colour Idioms: Black/White 52
22 Colour Idioms: Red/Blue 54
23 Driving Idioms 56
24 Eating Idioms 58
25 Eye Idioms 60
26 Face Idioms 62
27 Fingers and Thumbs Idioms 64
25 Fire Idioms 66
29 Fishing Idioms 68
30 Food Idioms 70
31 Foot Idioms 72
32 Hand Idioms 74
33 Head Idioms 76
14 Heart Idioms 78
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35 Horse Idioms 80
36 House and Home Idioms 82
37 Life and Death Idioms 84
38 Metal Idioms 86
39 Mind Idioms 88
40 Number Idioms 90
41 Sports Idioms 92
42 Swimming Idioms 94
43 Temperature Idioms 96
44 Train Idioms 98
45 Water Idioms 100
46 Review Unit 102
Section 3: Topics
47 Advice 106
48 Agreeing and Disagreeing 108
49 Annoyance and Frustration 110
50 Being Positive 112
51 Certainty and Doubt 114
52 Change 116
53 Communicating 118
54 Dishonesty 120
55 Easy and Difficult 122
56 The Family 124
57 Good and Bad Quality 126
58 Health 128
59 Holidays 130
60 Knowledge and Ability 132
61 Memory 134
62 Mistakes 136
63 Misunderstanding 138
64 Money 1 140
65 Money 2 142
66 Moods 144
67 People 146
68 Power and Influence 148
69 Problems 1 150
70 Problems 2 152
71 Reading 154
72 Relationships 1 156
73 Relationships 2 158
74 Safety and Risks 160
75 Similarities and Differences 162
76 Sleep and Dreams 164
77 Speed 166
5
78 Starting and Stopping 168
79 Success and Failure 170
80 Suitability 172
81 Surprises 174
82 Time 176
83 Work 1 178
84 Work 2 180
85 Review Unit 182
Section 4: Key Words
86 All 186
87 And 1 188
88 And 2 190
89 Back 192
90 Cut 194
91 End 196
92 Fall 198
93 Good / Better / Best 200
94 Ground 202
95 Half 204
96 Know , 206
97 Life 208
98 Light and Heavy 210
99 Like 212
100 Line 214
101 Lose and Lost 216
102 No 218
103 Of 220
104 Or 222
105 Point 224
106 Side 226
107 Something, Anything, Nothing 228
108 Thing 230
109 To + infinitive 232
110 Top and Bottom 234
111 'Very' 236
112 Way 238
113 Word 240
114 Review Unit 242
Section 5: Index of Expressions 245
Section 6: Answer Key 279
6
1: What is an idiom?
An idiom is an expression with the following features:
1. It is fixed and is recognised by native speakers. You cannot make up your own!
2. It uses language in a non-literal - metaphorical - way.
The following are examples:
1. Tin up to my eyes in work at the moment.
2. At the meeting I felt a bit out of my depth.
3. I was over the moon when I heard she'd had twins!
4. It broke my mother's heart to see her home burn to the ground.
If you are up to your eyes, you are very busy. If you are out of your depth, you might
be in the sea, but you are more likely to be in a situation which you do not understand
for some reason. If you are over the moon, you are extremely happy about something.
If something breaks your heart, you are very sad about it.
In these examples it is clear that the idiom is a whole expression. This is the traditional
view of idioms. But there is a lot more language which is idiomatic. For example, there
are lots of individual words with idiomatic uses. On page 3 we saw that catch has many
more uses than the literal one of catching a fish. Here are more examples:
Literal Use Idiomatic Use
1. The river flooded several villages. The crowd flooded on to the pitch.
2. Piles of rubbish lay everywhere. He's got piles of money.
3. I love roast potatoes. Euthanasia. Now, that's a very hot potato!
4. I've got an uncle at sea. I'm all at sea.
7
We are familiar with the idea of heavy rain causing a river to overflow and flood the
surrounding area; crowds are often described as water and the same verb flood is used.
The literal meaning of pile is a heap of something; piles of money, however, simply
means lots of money. A hot potato is not for eating; it means a controversial issue.
An uncle at sea works on a boat; if you are at sea,
it means you are in a situation which you do not
understand and where you cannot cope.
Idioms Organiser takes a broad view of idiom. In
this book you will practise common idioms such
as the black sheep of the family, but you will also
practise the huge area of idiomatic usage where
words are used with non-literal - metaphorical -
meanings.
2: What is a metaphor?
Metaphors exist in all languages. You use them in your own language. A metaphor uses
one idea to stand for another idea. Above, we saw the simple idea: A crowd is water.
When you have that idea in your mind, the crowd can flow, flood, or trickle. Here are
some of the common metaphors practised in this book:
1. Time is money.
We save time. We can spare 5 minutes. We can run out of time.
2. Business is war.
Advertising is a minefield in which you have targets and keep your sights on
what your competitors are doing.
3. Life is a journey.
You can be on the road to recovery. You might be at a crossroads in your life
because you are in a dead-end job.
6
3: Why are idioms and metaphors so important?
Firstly, they are important because they are very common. It is impossible to speak,
read, or listen to English without meeting idiomatic language. This is not something
you can leave until you reach an advanced level. All native speaker English is
idiomatic. Every newspaper is full of metaphorical language. You cannot avoid it or
leave it till later.
The second reason is that very often the metaphorical use of a word is more common
today than its literal use. For example, we know that farmers plough their fields, but
you can plough through a long novel or report;
you can plough on with your work; you can
plough money into a business; profits can be
ploughed back into a company; a lorry can
plough into a row of parked cars. Using plough
in its literal farming meaning is now much
rarer than all its other non-literal uses.
But it is important for you to know the
literal meaning. Often the literal meaning
creates a picture in your mind and this
picture makes the other meanings easier
to understand.
The third reason that this kind of language is important is because it is fun to learn
and to use. Because there is so much to learn, anything which helps you to remember
things is important and if the language you are learning is more colourful and
interesting, there is more chance that you will remember it. You will also sound more
natural if your English contains more idioms.
9
4: Can you translate idioms?
The simplest answer to this question is NO. This is an area where languages can be
very different. Sometimes you can translate an idiom from one language to another, but
most often this is not possible. For example, there is an English idiom to let sleeping
dogs lie. The German and Italian equivalents also speak of sleeping dogs, but not the
French or Spanish.
It is important that you are very careful if you have to translate idioms. Never translate
an idiom word for word. You must translate the whole expression. Sometimes you will
be able to translate the English idiom into an idiom in your own language. However,
there may be no idiom and you may just have to explain the meaning.
One of the reasons idiomatic language is difficult to translate is because it is the area
of language closest to culture. The metaphors of one culture will be different from those
of another.
5: Are idioms spoken or written English?
Both! Some people think that idiomatic language is more informal and, therefore,
common only in spoken English. This is not true. Idiomatic language is as fundamental
to English as tenses or prepositions. If you listen to people speaking, or if you read a
novel or a newspaper, you will meet idiomatic English in all these situations.
10
SECTION 1
Areas of Metaphor
Some ideas are small and very particular. Other ideas are big.
They bring lots of related ideas to mind. For example, we all
know what a 'coin' is. It is a small piece of metal which we use
to pay for things. It is a part of a much bigger idea - 'money'.
When we think of money we think of saving it, earning it,
wasting it, spending it, being generous with it, being mean with
it. Money is a bigger idea than coins or banknotes. When we use
the common metaphor - time is money - we know what we
mean. Many of the words we use with money, we also use with
time:
We have time to spare.
We waste time.
We spend time doing something.
We run out of time.
We save time.
In this section you will learn about 12 important metaphors
which cover major areas of English.
11
1: Literal meanings
We spend money. We spend time doing something. We even spend a lot of time
spending money! The idea that time is money is very common. Here are 16
sentences - 8 literal and 8 metaphorical. Write the metaphorical sentence under
the one with the literal meaning:
a. Could you spare 5 minutes for a chat?
b. 40 minutes waiting for a bus! What a waste of time!
c. It's worth spending at least two days in Oxford.
d. You'll have to finish now. We've run out of time.
e. I'm busy today, but I can make time for you tomorrow afternoon.
f. Let's get a taxi. It'll save at least 20 minutes.
g. Venice is definitely worth a whole week.
h. I'm so busy at work. I can't afford more than a week off at a time.
1. I spent over £100 today.
2. I've been trying to save at least £10 a week all year.
3. £2000 for a holiday! What a waste of money!
4. Can you spare me 50p for a cup of tea?
5. I could manage £70 a week, but I simply can't afford £100 for a flat.
6. I've run out of cash. Is there a cash machine anywhere near here?
7. Buy a second-hand car. New ones just aren't worth the money.
8. We made over a thousand pounds at our Christmas Fair.
Note: You can say He spent his life working for the poor.
12
2: Spending time
Fill in one of the following words in each space to complete the idioms:
afford waste (verb) plenty make
save ran out of spare waste (noun)
value short of precious spend
1. I've had to go the doctor about my eyes. I at least 6 hours a day
in front of my computer.
2. If you want to get to college quicker, time: don't drive, buy a bike!
3. I don't get home till 10 o'clock every night, so I the free time I have
at weekends.
4. If you're thinking of going to see the new Bond movie, don't bother. It's a
of time.
5. Sorry I wasn't able to get that book for you. I just time.
6. Can you a minute or two? I just want to ask you something.
7. I'm sorry I can't the time right now. I've got a plane to catch.
8. I work long hours so the time I spend with my family is very to me.
9. I hate airports. You so much time just queuing!
10. I think we should hurry up. We're time.
11. There's
of time. Don't worry! The train doesn't leave for an hour.
12. There's no way I can the time to see you before the end of the week.
3: Revision
Complete these common expressions with words from this unit:
1.1 seem to all my time dealing with other people's mistakes.
2. I'm sorry I just can't the time at the moment.
3. Could you me a minute or two?
4. Stop your time! Get on with your work.
5. Why not ring the helpline? It'll you hours trying to solve the problem
on your own.
6. We'd better get a taxi to the station. We're of time.
Are you well-organised or do you waste a lot of time?

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