Learning English Resources

American Idioms

First and foremost: first of all

e.g. To lose weight, you must, first and foremost, stop eating junk food.

Bad sort: an unpleasant person

e.g. He is a bad sort; nobody likes him.

Not born yesterday: not young or foolish.

e.g. Don't give me all that crap! I wasn't born yesterday.

Sit on one’s hands: refuse to give any help

e.g. When we needed your help; you just sat on your hands.

In bad sorts: in a bad humor

e.g. What’s the matter with you? You seem to be in bad sorts. Is it the weather or something else?

Sit tight: wait patiently

e.g. Just relax and sit tight!

Skeleton in the closet: a hidden and shocking secret

e.g. That he was a gay was skeleton in the closet.

Slang and Colloquial Expressions

Shoot off: depart quickly.

e.g. You'd better shoot off before the storm comes.

Not in the same street: not in the same class or category.

e.g. Of course, my car in not in the same street as yours: you paid a lot more.

Go down with: be accepted or approved by.

e.g. The President's speech went down with the Spanish community.

Alive and kicking: in good health.

"How is she doing?" "Very much alive and kicking."

Choice of Words

Endure / Persevere

Endure means to bear bravely; persevere means to keep on doing.

e.g. It is not easy to endure the physical pain.

e.g. In spite of all the difficulties, he persevered with his plans.

Exhausting / Exhaustive

Exhausting means making one very tired; exhaustive means very thorough, covering a lot.

e.g. To remove all the books from this room is exhausting work.

e.g. This is an exhaustive inquiry, covering every aspect of what happened.

Baleful / Baneful

Baleful means evil; baneful means harmful.

e.g. I don't like your friend, especially the baleful looks on his eyes. 

e.g. Don't drink too much alcohol; beware of its long-term baneful effect on your health.

Indoor / Indoors

Indoor is an adjective; indoors is an adverb.

e.g. Bowling is an indoor game.

e.g. It's going to rain; let's go indoors.

Prepositional Words and Phrases

HEAD

Head off: intercept or divert someone or something.

e.g. I think we can head off the problem this time.

e.g. Don't worry. We can head it off with another new project

Head out: begin a journey.

e.g. What time do we head out tomorrow morning?

Head up: be in charge of something.

e.g. I think I shall head up the committee soon.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Learning and Mastering English