#englishlanguage — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #englishlanguage, aggregated by home.social.
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Weather idioms
Idiom is a linguistic term for a set phrase or expression with a figurative meaning. As a rule, it’s pretty difficult to guess the meaning of an idiom from the literal definitions of its individual words, which can make them a bit difficult to learn. If you’re an English language learner, you’ve probably encountered this problem: even when you know all the words within an idiom, translating them literally gets you nowhere, as the resulting translation usually doesn’t make any sense.
Rather than approaching idioms as a problem to be solved, try to see them as a kind of language shortcuts: they typically carry a lot of meaning beyond the literal words. Learning them is important, as they are broadly and commonly used by native speakers: you’ll often encounter them in both spoken and written language. Using them will make your speech sound more natural.
The topic of this post are weather idioms, i.e. idioms with meteorological terms as key words. As you’ll see, they are all used metaphorically to describe human moods and experiences; some may be rather logical, others not so! Also, be aware that there are hundreds of weather idioms in the English language, so this is just a very small sample of the most common ones.
As usual on this blog, at the end of this post you’ll find a link to a simple quiz where you can practice these same idioms a bit more. It might help you remember them more easily.
TO BE/FEEL UNDER THE WEATHER
I didn’t go to the party last night, I was feeling under the weather.
- to feel slightly ill or sick (usually temporarily)
TO WEATHER THE STORM
Our company had a difficult year, but we managed to weather the storm.
- to deal with a difficult situation without too much harm or damage
TO BE ON CLOUD NINE
I finally got my dream job, I’m on cloud nine!
- to be extremely happy
A STORM IN A TEACUP
Do you remember that huge argument they had last week? It turned out be a storm in a teacup.
- a small problem that is exaggerated and treated as if it were very serious
TO TAKE A RAIN CHECK
Thank you so much for the offer, but can I take a rain check?
- to politely decline an offer or invitation for now, while remaining open to accepting it at a later time
TO STEAL [SOMEONE’S] THUNDER
Mark told everyone about his new job, but his sister stole his thunder by announcing her engagement.
- to take attention away from another person; to take spotlight
TO RAIN ON [SOMEONE’S] PARADE
I’m in such good mood today, I won’t let anyone rain on my parade!
- to spoil someone’s plans or good mood
TO PUT [SOMETHING] ON ICE
The manager has put the new project on ice due to lack of funding.
- to postpone, to put on hold
TO BE SNOWED UNDER
I haven’t had any free time lately, I’ve been snowed under with work.
- to be extremely busy and overwhelmed
TO BREAK THE ICE
People often use small talk to break the ice.
- to say or do something to make people (often total strangers) feel more relaxed and comfortable
Now you can do the online quiz. And if you want to learn more weather idioms, have a look at the list of suggested resources below.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
10 Weather Idioms in British English
100 Weather Idioms and Expressions
NOTES
I’m a freelance language tutor (English, Latin, Classical Greek), researcher, and a literary scholar currently based in Belgrade, Serbia.
If you wish to receive new content from my blog – as soon as it’s published – please enter your email address in the subscribe box below.
To support my work, you can send me a donation via PayPal. It would be greatly appreciated!
COVER IMAGE CREDIT
Photo by Daniel Lerman via Unsplash.
#EnglishLanguage #EnglishTeacher #EnglishVocabulary #idioms #learningEnglish #vocabularyQuiz #weather -
Weather idioms
Idiom is a linguistic term for a set phrase or expression with a figurative meaning. As a rule, it’s pretty difficult to guess the meaning of an idiom from the literal definitions of its individual words, which can make them a bit difficult to learn. If you’re an English language learner, you’ve probably encountered this problem: even when you know all the words within an idiom, translating them literally gets you nowhere, as the resulting translation usually doesn’t make any sense.
Rather than approaching idioms as a problem to be solved, try to see them as a kind of language shortcuts: they typically carry a lot of meaning beyond the literal words. Learning them is important, as they are broadly and commonly used by native speakers: you’ll often encounter them in both spoken and written language. Using them will make your speech sound more natural.
The topic of this post are weather idioms, i.e. idioms with meteorological terms as key words. As you’ll see, they are all used metaphorically to describe human moods and experiences; some may be rather logical, others not so! Also, be aware that there are hundreds of weather idioms in the English language, so this is just a very small sample of the most common ones.
As usual on this blog, at the end of this post you’ll find a link to a simple quiz where you can practice these same idioms a bit more. It might help you remember them more easily.
TO BE/FEEL UNDER THE WEATHER
I didn’t go to the party last night, I was feeling under the weather.
- to feel slightly ill or sick (usually temporarily)
TO WEATHER THE STORM
Our company had a difficult year, but we managed to weather the storm.
- to deal with a difficult situation without too much harm or damage
TO BE ON CLOUD NINE
I finally got my dream job, I’m on cloud nine!
- to be extremely happy
A STORM IN A TEACUP
Do you remember that huge argument they had last week? It turned out be a storm in a teacup.
- a small problem that is exaggerated and treated as if it were very serious
TO TAKE A RAIN CHECK
Thank you so much for the offer, but can I take a rain check?
- to politely decline an offer or invitation for now, while remaining open to accepting it at a later time
TO STEAL [SOMEONE’S] THUNDER
Mark told everyone about his new job, but his sister stole his thunder by announcing her engagement.
- to take attention away from another person; to take spotlight
TO RAIN ON [SOMEONE’S] PARADE
I’m in such good mood today, I won’t let anyone rain on my parade!
- to spoil someone’s plans or good mood
TO PUT [SOMETHING] ON ICE
The manager has put the new project on ice due to lack of funding.
- to postpone, to put on hold
TO BE SNOWED UNDER
I haven’t had any free time lately, I’ve been snowed under with work.
- to be extremely busy and overwhelmed
TO BREAK THE ICE
People often use small talk to break the ice.
- to say or do something to make people (often total strangers) feel more relaxed and comfortable
Now you can do the online quiz. And if you want to learn more weather idioms, have a look at the list of suggested resources below.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
10 Weather Idioms in British English
100 Weather Idioms and Expressions
NOTES
I’m a freelance language tutor (English, Latin, Classical Greek), researcher, and a literary scholar currently based in Belgrade, Serbia.
If you wish to receive new content from my blog – as soon as it’s published – please enter your email address in the subscribe box below.
To support my work, you can send me a donation via PayPal. It would be greatly appreciated!
COVER IMAGE CREDIT
Photo by Daniel Lerman via Unsplash.
#EnglishLanguage #EnglishTeacher #EnglishVocabulary #idioms #learningEnglish #vocabularyQuiz #weather -
Weather idioms
Idiom is a linguistic term for a set phrase or expression with a figurative meaning. As a rule, it’s pretty difficult to guess the meaning of an idiom from the literal definitions of its individual words, which can make them a bit difficult to learn. If you’re an English language learner, you’ve probably encountered this problem: even when you know all the words within an idiom, translating them literally gets you nowhere, as the resulting translation usually doesn’t make any sense.
Rather than approaching idioms as a problem to be solved, try to see them as a kind of language shortcuts: they typically carry a lot of meaning beyond the literal words. Learning them is important, as they are broadly and commonly used by native speakers: you’ll often encounter them in both spoken and written language. Using them will make your speech sound more natural.
The topic of this post are weather idioms, i.e. idioms with meteorological terms as key words. As you’ll see, they are all used metaphorically to describe human moods and experiences; some may be rather logical, others not so! Also, be aware that there are hundreds of weather idioms in the English language, so this is just a very small sample of the most common ones.
As usual on this blog, at the end of this post you’ll find a link to a simple quiz where you can practice these same idioms a bit more. It might help you remember them more easily.
TO BE/FEEL UNDER THE WEATHER
I didn’t go to the party last night, I was feeling under the weather.
- to feel slightly ill or sick (usually temporarily)
TO WEATHER THE STORM
Our company had a difficult year, but we managed to weather the storm.
- to deal with a difficult situation without too much harm or damage
TO BE ON CLOUD NINE
I finally got my dream job, I’m on cloud nine!
- to be extremely happy
A STORM IN A TEACUP
Do you remember that huge argument they had last week? It turned out be a storm in a teacup.
- a small problem that is exaggerated and treated as if it were very serious
TO TAKE A RAIN CHECK
Thank you so much for the offer, but can I take a rain check?
- to politely decline an offer or invitation for now, while remaining open to accepting it at a later time
TO STEAL [SOMEONE’S] THUNDER
Mark told everyone about his new job, but his sister stole his thunder by announcing her engagement.
- to take attention away from another person; to take spotlight
TO RAIN ON [SOMEONE’S] PARADE
I’m in such good mood today, I won’t let anyone rain on my parade!
- to spoil someone’s plans or good mood
TO PUT [SOMETHING] ON ICE
The manager has put the new project on ice due to lack of funding.
- to postpone, to put on hold
TO BE SNOWED UNDER
I haven’t had any free time lately, I’ve been snowed under with work.
- to be extremely busy and overwhelmed
TO BREAK THE ICE
People often use small talk to break the ice.
- to say or do something to make people (often total strangers) feel more relaxed and comfortable
Now you can do the online quiz. And if you want to learn more weather idioms, have a look at the list of suggested resources below.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
10 Weather Idioms in British English
100 Weather Idioms and Expressions
NOTES
I’m a freelance language tutor (English, Latin, Classical Greek), researcher, and a literary scholar currently based in Belgrade, Serbia.
If you wish to receive new content from my blog – as soon as it’s published – please enter your email address in the subscribe box below.
To support my work, you can send me a donation via PayPal. It would be greatly appreciated!
COVER IMAGE CREDIT
Photo by Daniel Lerman via Unsplash.
#EnglishLanguage #EnglishTeacher #EnglishVocabulary #idioms #learningEnglish #vocabularyQuiz #weather -
Weather idioms
Idiom is a linguistic term for a set phrase or expression with a figurative meaning. As a rule, it’s pretty difficult to guess the meaning of an idiom from the literal definitions of its individual words, which can make them a bit difficult to learn. If you’re an English language learner, you’ve probably encountered this problem: even when you know all the words within an idiom, translating them literally gets you nowhere, as the resulting translation usually doesn’t make any sense.
Rather than approaching idioms as a problem to be solved, try to see them as a kind of language shortcuts: they typically carry a lot of meaning beyond the literal words. Learning them is important, as they are broadly and commonly used by native speakers: you’ll often encounter them in both spoken and written language. Using them will make your speech sound more natural.
The topic of this post are weather idioms, i.e. idioms with meteorological terms as key words. As you’ll see, they are all used metaphorically to describe human moods and experiences; some may be rather logical, others not so! Also, be aware that there are hundreds of weather idioms in the English language, so this is just a very small sample of the most common ones.
As usual on this blog, at the end of this post you’ll find a link to a simple quiz where you can practice these same idioms a bit more. It might help you remember them more easily.
TO BE/FEEL UNDER THE WEATHER
I didn’t go to the party last night, I was feeling under the weather.
- to feel slightly ill or sick (usually temporarily)
TO WEATHER THE STORM
Our company had a difficult year, but we managed to weather the storm.
- to deal with a difficult situation without too much harm or damage
TO BE ON CLOUD NINE
I finally got my dream job, I’m on cloud nine!
- to be extremely happy
A STORM IN A TEACUP
Do you remember that huge argument they had last week? It turned out be a storm in a teacup.
- a small problem that is exaggerated and treated as if it were very serious
TO TAKE A RAIN CHECK
Thank you so much for the offer, but can I take a rain check?
- to politely decline an offer or invitation for now, while remaining open to accepting it at a later time
TO STEAL [SOMEONE’S] THUNDER
Mark told everyone about his new job, but his sister stole his thunder by announcing her engagement.
- to take attention away from another person; to take spotlight
TO RAIN ON [SOMEONE’S] PARADE
I’m in such good mood today, I won’t let anyone rain on my parade!
- to spoil someone’s plans or good mood
TO PUT [SOMETHING] ON ICE
The manager has put the new project on ice due to lack of funding.
- to postpone, to put on hold
TO BE SNOWED UNDER
I haven’t had any free time lately, I’ve been snowed under with work.
- to be extremely busy and overwhelmed
TO BREAK THE ICE
People often use small talk to break the ice.
- to say or do something to make people (often total strangers) feel more relaxed and comfortable
Now you can do the online quiz. And if you want to learn more weather idioms, have a look at the list of suggested resources below.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
10 Weather Idioms in British English
100 Weather Idioms and Expressions
NOTES
I’m a freelance language tutor (English, Latin, Classical Greek), researcher, and a literary scholar currently based in Belgrade, Serbia.
If you wish to receive new content from my blog – as soon as it’s published – please enter your email address in the subscribe box below.
To support my work, you can send me a donation via PayPal. It would be greatly appreciated!
COVER IMAGE CREDIT
Photo by Daniel Lerman via Unsplash.
#EnglishLanguage #EnglishTeacher #EnglishVocabulary #idioms #learningEnglish #vocabularyQuiz #weather -
Linguist clearly demonstrates how ‘thinking is walking’ in English and it’s just so cool
https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.upworthy.com/linguist-explains-thinking-is-walking-ex1/
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LOCAL AUTHOR REFLECTS ON FOURTH BOOK FOR CHILDREN
On June 24, Waterloo-based author, Jennifer Harris, released The Witching Hour, a new picture book about a family of witches. This is Harris’ fourth children’s book.
Harris said her inspiration for the book was twofold.
“Like many parents, I had a child who was not the best sleeper. We all have those moments of walking around feeling a bit like a zombie when you have one of those children. So that kind of stayed with me quite deeply,” Harris said.
What brought the story to life was when the line, ‘In the witching hour, the sun slides down’ came to Harris one morning.
“I started to think about a family of witches and what they would do if they had this kind of fussy child, what kind of magic would they use to calm a baby,” Harris said.
“Because of that initial line, [it became] this very rhythmic story that had a lulling quality to it, even as things became more and more out of control,” she said.
For Harris, this is often how her creative process begins.
“It feels very organic that once I have a line that I really love, that I think would resonate with a child, create a mystery, or be a good hook, then it kind of unspools logically that there’s a story that’s going to follow from that,” Harris said.
Harris always knew she wanted to write creatively; however, it took some time to find a genre that worked best.
“I had come across this reference to a woman who had stitched a quilt of the solar system in the nineteenth century, and the idea where she wanted to use it to educate people about science,” she said.
While Harris originally considered writing an academic paper about the woman, she quickly realized that a picture book would be a more effective way to capture the attention of a larger audience.
“As soon as I thought that it clicked in my head, and the first few lines came to me, and I knew that this was the right way to tell this story,” Harris said.
Outside of writing children’s books, Harris is an English Language and Literature professor at the University of Waterloo.
Harris began teaching nineteenth-century American literature and transitioned into children’s literature courses based on increasing student interest.
“People tend to think of children’s literature as simplistic, but, in fact, it’s an incredibly sophisticated medium. Picture books aren’t that different from poetry, and then they have to do this additional work of capturing the interest of a child,” Harris said.
Harris noted a key component of her courses is working with students to understand how the books they read as children shaped how they see the world.
“Writing and reading for children is so crucial. We know that the number of books in a child’s house will predict their academic outcome. We know that the number of hours children spend reading a week directly translates to academic outcomes,” Harris said.
“Looking at the content of those books and thinking what that means for the child in terms of how they understand their world is incredibly powerful,” she said.
#childrensLiterature #englishLanguage #englishLiterature #jenniferHarris #literacy #localAuthor #safinaJennah #theWithcingHour #universityOfWaterloo
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#englishgrammar #englishlanguage #EFL #histodon #linguistodon
Good morning (ou presque) Mastodon, tu travailles sur les manuels de langue ? L'anglais enseigné en France ? L'édition scolaire au XXe siècle ?
Tous ces livres/manuels sont à récupérer gratuitement à #montpellier !(je lis volontiers vos conseils pour savoir quoi faire de ces #livres, je ne veux pas les jeter et ils ont des petits copains allemands, latins et grec)