English Expressions You Must Learn

In modern communication, figurative forms of expressions like idioms, similes, metaphors, personifications and hyperboles are so crucial, for they help make ideas sound more real and feelings feel more actual. They are so revealing and work like stories told through dramatic images. For instance, if someone describes your piece of work as a dog's dinner, they have not only transported your mind to a dramatic scene elsewhere, they have also delivered a clear message amplified by the image described in the comparison. The use of figurative expressions is quite strong among native and near-native English speakers due mainly to the high degree of creativity with which they use the language. According to one research, an average native speaker uses up to four idioms per minute. Thus, to those in the business of communication such as journalists, politicians, preachers, lawyers, public speakers, tour operators, teachers and even students, proficiency in English figurative expressions is a powerful asset of debate and public speaking. Also, apart from being the key for unlocking the language mindset of native speakers, figurative expressions are a means that second language students of English need to increase their vocabulary and lexicon capacity, gain fluency and sound more native-like. Getting interested in English figurative expressions but wondering how to wrap your head around them? Well, this book should be your first step towards achieving that goal. But, you should bear in mind that with English figurative expressions numbering many thousands, you really have your work cut out for you. This book is structured in a very basic form for easy use by anyone with an average command of English. Therefore, for effective comprehension, each figurative expression is driven home by the situation example, which acts as a precursor to the sentence example. The sentence example is not necessarily an exact conversion of the situation example in meaning, but rather a guide to help the reader understand the use of the expression being learnt.