For English language learners, mastering idioms is vital for academic and professional success. Proficiency exams like IELTS and TOEFL assess idiom comprehension, recognising it as a sign of advanced ...

Being a linguist—and someone who has tried to learn several languages (including English) in addition to my mother tongue (Flemish Dutch)—I have an annoying habit: instead of paying attention to what ...

From William Shakespeare to Seamus Heaney, figurative language such as idiom, metaphor, symbolism and allegory all function to make a poem sound more colourful and appealing to the reader. But are we ...

A post shared on X correctly listed idioms indicating heavy rain in English, Welsh, French, Finnish, Norwegian, Greek and Slovak. Idioms are a fascinating aspect of language, reflecting cultural ...

Language processing encompasses the mental mechanisms by which individuals decode, interpret and produce language, while idiom comprehension focuses on understanding fixed, culturally embedded ...

In any language there are certain conventions of expression--ways of writing and saying things--that are not necessarily dictated by grammatical rules. But when these conventions are not followed, the ...

Mastering English idioms is more than just memorising funny phrases—it’s about sounding natural and fluent. Research shows that gaining control of idiomatic expressions is an important indicator of ...

For me to understand idioms is easy as pie or a piece of cake, but of course I have an ace in the hole or up my sleeve and I can spit them out at the drop of a hat or right off the bat, not because I ...