Useful Idioms 3

 Back to Square One ↶

What is an Idiom?

"An idiom is an expression that has a particular meaning (as a group of words) that is different from the definitions of each individual word on its own."

There are many idioms in English to explain something, some are used more often than others.

One of the idioms used in English is 'Back to Square One', which means one has to start their plan again from the beginning because their previous attempt was completely unsuccessful.

Here are some examples:

• My colleague failed to impress the managers with his project, so he is back to square one.
• I accidently deleted all my files from my computer, which means I am back to square one with my presentation.
• After all that hard work preparing for my presentation, I am back to square one because I forget to save it before shutting down the computer.
• He always finds himself back to square one with his ideas about starting a new company.
• I hope I do not find myself back to square one, having spent a lot of time researching the subject for my presentation.

Useful Idioms 2

 Fit Like a Glove🧤

What is an Idiom?

"An idiom is an expression that has a particular meaning (as a group of words) that is different from the definitions of each individual word on its own."

There are many idioms in English to explain something, some are used more often than others. 

One idiom used in English is 'Fit Like a Glove', which means 'to be the right fit (size) for someone'. 

Here are some examples:

• My new jacket fits like a glove.
• I'm so glad I bought this shirt—it fits like a glove.
• I tried on the suit and it fitted like a glove.
• Thank you for the present—the t-shirt fits like a glove.
• These new jeans fit like a glove and are so comfortable.

Useful Idioms 1

A Piece of Cake (Idiom) 🍰

What is an Idiom?

"An idiom is an expression that has a particular meaning (as a group of words) that is different from the definitions of each individual word on its own."

There are many idioms in English to explain something, some are used more often than others.

One of the most popular idioms used is 'A Piece of Cake', which means 'something is very easy to do'.

Here are some examples:

• Putting this table together was a piece of cake.
• Running around the park every Saturday morning is a piece of cake.
• I think the exam is going to be a piece of cake, but I could be wrong.
• For the first few weeks, my new course wasn't a piece of cake.

Some Differences

British and American Differences in English 

"Sometimes, different words are used to refer to the same thing"

Here are 10.

👟trainers (British) / sneakers (American)

✅ rubbish bin (British) / trash can (American)

🛒 (shopping) trolley (British) / cart (American)

🛗 lift (British) / elevator (American)

✅ crisps (British) / potato chips (American)

👖 trousers (British) / pants (American)

⚽ football (British) / soccer (American)

🚙 (car) boot (British) / trunk (American)

🚘 (car) bonnet (British) / hood (American)

📱mobile phone (British) / cell phone (American)

Different Parts of Speech (Articles)

There are two articles in the English Language. The two articles are the indefinite a and an, and the definite the. An article can be placed before a noun.

The indefinite article a and an can only be used before a noun in the singular number.

For example:

• a clock, a park, a city, an apple and other nouns in the singular number.

One thing to add: If the noun is uncountable, you cannot follow this general rule for the indefinite article. Let me give one example:

Bread is an uncountable noun, so you cannot use this general rule and write or say 'a bread', but you would have to add loaf of  or slice of  after the indefinite article, and before the word 'bread' to be correct.

For example:

• I bought a loaf of bread. 

• I ate a slice of bread. 

The indefinite article cannot be used before a noun in the plural number.

For example: 

• clocks, parks, cities, apples and other nouns in the plural number. 

To put an indefinite article before clocks, parks, cities, apples and other plural nouns would be a grammatical error.

The definite article the can be used before a noun in either the singular or plural number. 

For example:

• the clock, the clocks; the park, the parks; the city, the cities; the apple, the apples.

There can be exceptions when an article is not used. Let us compare!

• A car has wheels. (any car)

• The car has wheels. (a particular car known or described) 

• The cars have wheels. (some particular cars known or described)

• All cars have wheels. (taken in its widest sense - no article used)

• There are some cars with 5 doors. (indefinite sense  'some cars' -  no article used)

Different Parts of Speech (Proper and Common Nouns)

A noun is a person, place or thing. Nouns can be proper or common.

Proper nouns specifically name a person, place or thing. For example: Peter (person), England (place), and Big Ben (thing). Proper nouns are capitalized. 

Common nouns do not specifically name a person, place or thing, but in general. For example: uncle (person), country (place), and clock (thing). Usually common nouns are not capitalized, but there are exceptions. One of those exceptions would be if a common noun is used at the beginning, for example: Bags are used to carry things in.

Here are some examples using proper nouns (London, Big Ben, and Peter):

• My favourite place is London.

• They took a photograph of Big Ben.

• He plays football with Peter every week.

Here are some examples using common nouns (city, clock, and uncle):

• My favourite place is in the city.

• They took a photograph of a clock.

• He plays football with his uncle every week.

Different Parts of Speech (Articles and Nouns)

There are different parts of speech in the English language: article, noun, adjective, pronoun, verb, participle, adverb, conjunction, preposition and interjection.

Let us begin with the first two in the list, the article and the noun. An article is placed before a noun. The articles are a, an and the - a and an are called indefinite articles (general) and the is called the definite article (specific).

A noun is a person, place or thing, for example: man (person), library (place), lion (thing),  and car (thing).

Here is an example using the definite and indefinite articles with a noun:

Have you got the pen? (referring to a specific pen)

Have you got a pen? (not referring to a specific pen)

There are 2 ways to write the indefinite article, a and an. Usually a is used when the noun begins with a consonant, for example, a ball, and an is used when the noun begins with a vowel (a,e,i,o,u), for example, an apple, but there are exceptions. One exception is the word 'university', which starts with a vowel, but uses a (a university) and not an, because the word 'university' has a consonant sound.