نعلم الانجليزية .. Idiomatic Expressions and Phrasal Verbs Online

What is an idiom?

An idiom is a combination of words that has a meaning that is different
from the meanings of the individual words themselves. It can have a
literal meaning in one situation and a different idiomatic meaning in
another situation. It is a phrase which does not always follow the
normal rules of meaning and grammar.
Many idioms are similar to expressions in other languages and can be
easy for a learner to understand. Other idioms come from older phrases
which have changed over time. Other idioms come from such things as
sports that are common in the United Kingdom or the United States and
may require some special cultural knowledge to easily understand them.

Structure of Idioms

Most idioms are unique and fixed in their grammatical structure.
However, there are many changes that can be made to an idiom. Some of
these changes result in a change in the grammatical structure that would
generally be considered to be wrong. There can also be changes in
nouns, pronouns or in the verb tenses. Adjectives and adverbs can also
be added to an idiomatic phrase. It is for these reasons that it is
sometimes difficult to isolate the actual idiomatic expression and then
find it in a dictionary of idioms.


What is a phrasal verb?

A phrasal verb is a verb which is a combination of a verb and an adverb,
a verb and a preposition, and a verb with an adverb and a preposition.
It can have a literal meaning that is easy to understand because the
meaning is clear from the words that are used in the phrasal verb
itself. It can also have an idiomatic meaning which cannot easily be
understood by looking at the words themselves.
Some idiomatic expressions are made with a phrasal verb plus some other
words. These words are used in a fixed order to give an idiomatic
meaning.