2010’s top idioms and slang that helped English learners

Source: physorg.com

Cambridge Dictionaries Online have revealed that the top searches by English learners were generally English idiomatic phrases and slang – which are so often hard for learners due to old or strange origins. As such, they are difficult to teach, but if a foreigner can master a handful of them, it can make a great difference in how fluent their English seems.

Phrases such as “eat your heart out” (used in jest to say that someone is better), “right you are” (expressing agreement), “catch a few rays” (to sunbathe) and “no mean feat” (a worthy or great achievement) were among the most searched idioms.

Strangely enough, the top search term was the word “dictionary” – you’d think that people would have had a hard time finding the CDO site without knowing what that word meant!

You can read the full article from physorg.com here.