We (Edith Hope Fine and Judith Josephson) are the Grammar Patrol. Both of us taught for years and are now writers, with thirty plus books between us, including our two popular grammar guides, Nitty-Gritty Grammar and More Nitty-Gritty Grammar. For close to twenty years, we taught writing and grammar basics and now we blog about grammar for writers.
For those new to English, many expressions pose puzzling challenges. Can something really “drive you up a wall”? Read on.
Idioms
Idioms are expressions with understood meanings, but are figurative, not literal.
In our neck of the woods, we’re pleased as punch when it rains cats and dogs.
Our gerbil kicked the bucket.
We burn the midnight oil.
The Cabbage Patch doll was a flash in the pan.
Your optimistic grandmother may have a pie-in-the-sky attitude.
Actress Blythe Danner has worked “Break a leg!” into an osteoporosis drug ad.
I’m under the weather.
Sports idioms have crept into everyday communication:
They’re out in left field.
Mosley got it straight from the horse’s mouth.
Let’s touch base on Tuesday.
Idioms abound in work settings:
Our design team thinks outside the box.
The comptroller is crunching the numbers.
Bubba LaRue is climbing the corporate ladder.
Beef up your resume.
As an added challenge, idiomatic expressions can change, especially in “teen speak.” “I could be up with that” once meant you liked an idea. Now it’s “I could be down with that.” Go figure!
As Ziva from TV’s popular NCIS perfects her English, her idiomatic mismatches amuse her colleagues: “Stay focused on the job in my hand” or “You are a broken tape, Gibbs.” She was “close, but not cigar”; she meant “job at hand” and “broken record.”
