How do you use idioms?

Answer 1

You can use several methods to figure out what an idiom or slang term means. 1. Be sure that you understand the meaning of each word in the phrase. Use a dictionary if needed. 2. See if you can figure out the meaning by the context of the entire sentence or paragraph. For example: "Sam was a man to ride the river with, and worthy of respect." You can see that this phrase means something good instead of something bad, even if you don't understand that it means someone who can be counted on during tough times, who will support you and not abandon you during trouble. "Don't get your back up about what Matt said - he was just teasing." This phrase obviously means something like "get angry" or "get your feelings hurt," even if you don't know that it refers to the fact that a horse (or many other animals) will arch their back up when they get angry - another form of this phrase would be "bowed up." 3. Ask a native speaker, or look up the idiom (see the Related Links for websites)!

Answer 2

There are several ways:

• Pay attention to conversation and ask people to explain if you don't understand the meaning of an idiom
• Use the internet to look up terms you don't know - here's a good link
• Use an idiom website to look up new idioms and learn their meaning - see the link
• Take an English class that will help you to learn slang and idioms

Answer 3

Translate from one language to another??

This could be difficult because the meaning of idioms often cannot be known from the words in the idiom. For example 'kicked the bucket' is an idiom that means 'has died' so while you may be able to translate the words kicked the bucket into another language the idiomatic meaning wouldn't translate.

Answer 4

Idioms are used to make speech more interesting.