If you already speak some English and now would like to speak more like a native, youve found the right book. One of the keys to speaking like a native is the ability to use and understand casual expressions, or idioms. American English is full of idioms. You wont learn these expressions in a standard textbook. But you will hear them all the time in everyday conversations. Youll also meet them in books, newspapers, magazines, and TV shows. This book will help you understand and use idioms better. It contains over 300 of todays most common idioms.
Idioms add color to the language. Master idioms and your speech will be less awkward, less foreign. Youll also understand more of what you read and hear. Often a student of English tries to translate idioms word-for-word, or literally. If you do this, you can end up asking, "What could this possibly mean?" This is why idioms are difficult: they work as groups of words, not as individual words. If you translate each word on its own, youll miss the meaning and in many cases end up with nonsense.
As an example, lets take one of the idioms presented in this book: "out of this world." This expression is often used to describe delicious food. If you have a party and you serve a delicious chicken dish, your American friend might tell you, "This chicken is out of this world!" Start translating the expression word-for-word and youll have to ask yourself: "What world is it in?" and "Why is she even commenting on the chicken being in a world, any world?"