|English Wikibook (edit)|
|General: Introduction - Grammar|
|Parts of speech: Nouns - Verbs - Adjectives - Adverbs - Pronouns - Conjunctions - Prepositions - Interjections
|Parts of the sentence: Subjects - Predicates
|Word functions: Subjects - Predicates - Direct Objects - Indirect Objects - Objects of the Preposition
|Types of sentences: Simple Sentences - Complex Sentences
|Types of Phrases: Adjective - Adverb - Noun|
|Types of Clauses: Adjective - Adverb - Noun|
|Other English topics: Gerunds - Idiomatic Phrases - Spelling - Vocabulary - Punctuation - Syntax - Appositives - Phonics - Pronunciation|
What is an idiomatic phrase?
An idiomatic phrase is a group of words that do not mean what they appear to mean.
- Cross my mind - this means to remember e.g. It never crossed my mind to buy any milk
- Take to heart - this means to "take it seriously or personally"
- Give a hand - this means to help e.g. Shall I give you a hand or are you OK?
- Turn over a new leaf - this means to "start over from scratch and become a better person"
- Fed up - this means to be irritated or bored e.g. I'm fed up with the cold weather
- Raining cats and dogs - this means to rain a lot e.g. I stayed at home because it was raining cats and dogs
- At arms length - this means t very near