Study these flashcards to learn common idioms, or test yourself to see how many of the phrases you already understand.
Most Common Idioms in American Spoken English
Reference: Most frequently used figurative phrases from three corpora of American spoken English. Grant, L.E. (2007). In a manner of speaking: Assessing frequent spoken figurative idioms to assist ESL/EFL teachers. System, 35, pgs. 169−181.
Most Common Idioms in Academic Speech
Reference: Simpson, R., Mendis, D., 2003. A corpus-based study of idioms in academic speech. TESOL Quarterly 37 (3), 419−441.
Most Common Idioms in College Newspapers
Reference: Minugh, D. (2008) The College Idiom: Idioms in the COLL Corpus; ICAME Journal: Computers in English Linguistics, ISSN 0801-5775, no 32, 115-39 p.