Michael McCarthy is Emeritus Professor of Applied Linguistics in the School of English, University of Nottingham, UK. He has been involved in the study and teaching of English for more than 50 years. For the last 30 years, he has worked with large, computerised corpora of English texts, investigating them to establish how the vocabulary and grammar of English are really used at the present time and how they are evolving and changing. Michael is also the author of English Idioms in Use and, in this article, he explores the use of idioms in the English language.
English has a large number of idiomatic expressions
The Cambridge Idioms Dictionary contains more than 7,000 of them. The special nature of idioms means that it is not always easy to guess the meaning from the words that make them up, and even in context it is not always obvious what they mean. For example, in the newspaper headline “PRIME MINISTER WARNS CABINET MINISTERS TO TOE THE LINE ON FOREIGN POLICY”, if you do not know the idiom toe the line, you will probably read the article below the headline to find out that it means “do what they are told to do or are expected to do”, and that it does not mean “not to panic” or “to collaborate”, for example.
There are a number of different types of idioms in English
Some of them are clauses, with a verb and an object, such as toe the line, some are idiomatic compounds and collocations, such as squeaky-clean (completely clean, without any vices) and filthy rich (very rich), and some are prepositional phrases, such behind the times (old-fashioned, not keeping up with the latest developments) or under the weather (not feeling well). There are also idiomatic similes, for example, as dry as a bone (extremely dry), or as cool as a cucumber (very clam and relaxed) and binomial expressions such as dribs and drabs (small amounts at a time) and neck and neck (e.g. when two people are equal in a competition such as a race).
Idioms are fixed in their form
We say dribs and drabs, not drabs and dribs; we say toe the line, not toe a line, or toe this line. And because they are often colourful expressions, they can be quite informal: I was blown away by your piano playing! is much more informal than your piano playing was absolutely wonderful!
So, teachers and learners are faced with a number of problems: there are different types of idioms, their forms are fixed, their meaning is usually not obvious and there are thousands of them.
Clearly, 7,000 idioms are far too many for any learner to acquire during an average language course. To achieve realistic learning targets, we need to examine a corpus (database of spoken and written texts stored on a computer) to establish which idioms are used in everyday English and how they are used. By using a corpus, the authors of English Idioms in Use were able to establish that some idioms are much more frequently used than others and that idioms are typically used when people are evaluating or commenting on something or someone rather than simply stating facts.
Popular and unpopular idioms
In terms of frequency, we can see some great differences in how common or rare some idioms are. These statistics show how many times each idiom occurs in the Cambridge International Corpus, which contains more than a billion words of text:
- Get rid of something: 28,000
- Stand one’s ground: 1,600
- Toe the line: 490
- Rain cats and dogs: 65
Using information like this, we can focus on idioms that are actually used and also find out the contexts in which they typically occur and grade them for intermediate and advanced level learners.
Because idioms are so tricky and complex, it is important to give clear examples and explanations of meaning to learners and to present idioms in context. The English Idioms in Use books do this and also use a lot of pictures in the practice exercises to make the idioms more memorable. Additionally, the units provide ‘language help’ tips and opportunities to personalise the idioms.
But should we teach and learn idioms at all, when there are so many other, more basic things to learn?
The answer is that, although idioms may be difficult to remember, and not as common as more literal, basic vocabulary, anyone who wants to read novels and short stories or magazines and websites in English, or watch English language films and TV, or listen to English songs will see and hear a lot of idioms which help to make the language rich, colourful and creative and to make the learning experience a bit more enjoyable and fascinating. With good self-study materials, learners can get to grips with idioms and practise using the ones that are most likely to be useful for them.
If you enjoyed this article, you might also like Michael’s article about why good language teachers should take collocations seriously!