Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Idiomatics

No, I'm not talking about a newcomer to a Gaulish village we all know (I'd have to spell it with an "x", anyway) ;) If you really want to get into idiomatic expressions, here is a page that lists a humble 1,977 of them:

http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/

To round it off, an exhaustive (or should that read "exhausting"?) dictionary of phrasal verbs:

http://www.englishpage.com/prepositions/phrasaldictionary.html

If, after careful, long and arduous studies, you feel you're ready to be tested on them, try this page:

http://a4esl.org/q/h/idioms.html

Mind you: I don't expect y'all to know all of these by the end of the term. 50% will do. (Just kidding.)

3 comments:

Weese said...

Thanks for the links, Ricardo! About the quote: That sounds about like what Henry VIIth is supposed to have said to his umpteenth wife, who was worried she might end up being executed like some of the others - at least according to the Beefeater on tourist guide duty at the Tower of London when I visited some years ago: "Don't worry, darling - I'm gonna love you for the rest of your life." (Well, some of you guys might know the story already, but I really like telling it ;) )

Weese said...

RAR (Read again, Ricardo) - that WAS the story, basically (in a nutshell, to use another of those idiomatic expressions).

Herr Rau said...

Thanks for the useful links.

I know the build-a-man-a-fire joke from Terry Pratchett, though it needn't have originated there. (It was attributed to some historical person who I can't remember but which made it doubly funny.)

Speaking of the Beefeater at the Tower: We had the most incredible guide there, who told really excellent stories. There's even a CD to be bought in the shop, "Stories from the Tower of London", "as told by Tony Strafford".