Idioms are everywhere whether you break a leg, make a mountain out of a molehill, or let the cat out of the bag and they spice up English in the most delightful way. Mastery of idioms promotes fluency and lively, colorful self-expression. And now, with Exploring Idioms, you can use them to develop your students¿ critical-thinking skills, too. In Exploring Idioms, Valeri Helterbran provides opportunities for middle-grade students to actively work with and connect to 120 common American idioms, as well as more than 300 related idiomatic phrases students can investigate on their own. The critical-thinking activities in Exploring Idioms give you an easy and effective way to begin or end the day, to prepare students to respond to questions about idioms on state assessments, and to help ELL students master this difficult English-language concept while having fun at the same time. Have your students put on their thinking caps and explore the creative world of idioms.

Idioms are the nuts and bolts of English. They add color and zing to make the language more expressive. This book with its humorous illustrations and witty definitions is almost guaranteed to make learning English idioms fun! And as easy as ABC!

This collection of 1001 English idioms is a highly useful tool for students of the English language. Idioms are divided into twenty relevant topics: Food, Body, Animals, Money, Comparison, Nature, Colors, Numbers, Love and War. ...and..., Clothes, Home, Work, World, School, Sports, People, Country, Travel and Music. Each unit consists of a wide selection of idioms which are explained and used in great examples to clearly illustrate the true point of each idiom. Each unit is followed by practice exercises to help the students reinforce the use and meaning of the idioms. This book is also a highly reference tool for teachers of English as a second language.

Did you know that 'flavour of the month' originated in a marketing campaign in American ice-cream parlours in the 1940s, when a particular flavour would be specially promoted for a month at a time? And did you know that 'off the cuff' refers to the rather messy practice of writing impromptu notes on one's shirt cuff before speaking in public? These and many more idioms are explained and put into context in this second edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Idioms. This vastly entertaining dictionary takes a fresh look at the idiomatic phrases and sayings that make English such a rich and intriguing language. A major new edition, it contains entries for over 5000 idioms, including 350 new entries and over 500 new quotations. The text has been updated to include many new idioms using the findings of the Oxford English Reading Programme, the biggest language research programme in the world. The entries are supported by a wealth of illustrative quotations from a wide range of sources and periods. For example: 'Rowling has not been asleep at the wheel in the three years since the last Potter novel, and I am pleased to report that she has not confused sheer length with inspiration.' - Guardian, 2003. 'I made the speech of a lifetime. I had them tearing up the seats and rolling in the aisles.' - P.G. Woodhouse, 1940. Many entries include boxed features which give more detailed background on the idiom in question. For example, did you know that 'taken aback' was adopted from nautical terminology, and described a ship unable to move forward because of a strong headwind pressing its sails back against the mast? The text has been entirely redesigned so that it is both elegant and easy to use. Anyone interested in the quirky side of the English language will have hours of fun browsing through this fascinating and informative volume.

Get to know English idioms with our friendly guide, perfect for beginners and intermediate learners. This book helps you understand common English phrases quickly and have fun along the way. With straightforward examples and short stories, each idiom is easy to grasp, making your English sound natural. You'll learn to use idioms the way native speakers do, which can make talking and writing in English much more interesting. Start exploring the world of idioms and boost your English skills today!

We've let the cat out of the bag! Learning to identify and understand idioms is easy and fun with creative activities your students will love. Complete with step-by-step directions and reproducible templates, these projects are effective ways to help students understand metaphors, explore the origins of common sayings, and discover the fun of wordplay. Don't save these for a rainy day! Book jacket.

As non-native English speakers, we would probably find it difficult to understand even the most common idioms. We should understand the form of each idiomatic expression before we can use it correctly in a sentence, besides knowing its meaning. In this book, the list of 99 common idioms is in alphabetical order under each chapter that shows its category. Each idiom comes with its meaning and its form (verb, noun, adjective, adverb, or respective phrase) to ease understanding on how to use it as part of a complete sentence. This book attempts to provide an analogy to help us remember the meaning accordingly. Each comic strip illustrates an example for each idiom in terms of how we can use it in spoken English. It also attempts to reflect directly its figurative or literal meaning; or even both literal and figurative meanings in some cartoon illustrations. Hence, this book aims to make readers fall in love with idioms when learning them in easy and fun way through cartoon illustrations. Dr Shahida Sulaiman together with cartoonist ASAK and Dr Zarina Mustafa who specialises in English field, form a great team to make this book worthwhile to all readers.