English Idioms Don't Make Sense

... the idiom 'all in'. Of course, sometimes, it means just what you think. All of something is in something else. A class of children, for instance, could be all in a classroom. But what about the difficult use?

Your friend comes to you after work. Perhaps you meet at the bus stop. When you first meet, you ask your friend loudly over the noise of the traffic if they would like to go for a beer with you. Then after a particularly noisy motorcycle rushes past, your friend looks down and says,"I'm sorry, I'm all in for today."

'All in? All in what?' you might be thinking. At times like this you feel frustrated that English has a second level of code. You know the meanings of the words your friend said, but you still don't understand your friend! How can you learn this difficult English?

How Can You Learn These Expressions?

Fortunately, English speakers like English idioms enough to make idiom dictionaries. There are several steps to learning idioms. They are listed below. The first step starts with an idiom dictionary. Here's how to study them: 1. find them
2. find their meanings
3. practice listening to them
4. after listening practice, try to use them

Find Them

You have to find the idiom. If you heard it somewhere, write it down (not of them are easy to hear words). Later, you can find them in the idiom dictionary. You might also take a quick note about where and when you heard it; something to help you remember the situation.

A more proactive way to study is to find some interesting idioms before you hear them. Just start looking in the idiom dictionary. One or two will look interesting. You have found them now. The next step is to get the meaning.

Find Their Meanings

You are already looking in the dictionary at this point, so the meaning is right there. Read it. Read it several times. Read it out loud. Cover the meaning and repeat it out loud. You are already starting to learn the meaning! But you have to do more practise than this.

Practise Listening to Them

This site is a great place to start practising listening to idioms. There are lots of stories using idioms. The stories are short. And they are recorded for listening to. The rest is up to you.

Practise shadowing them - saying the words that you hear in the recording at the same time that you hear them. You may even decide to shadow the story while you are looking at the script (and reading it).

You can practice listen and repeat. This is just like it sounds. Listen to a short section of the audio (story), stop the audio and repeat what you heard.

And you can also practise learning the rhythm of the idiom. Simply try to clap out every beat that you hear in the recording. Some beats are fast, and others are slow. Without a teacher, this can be very challenging, but it certainly helps you to hear the idiom, especially if you also do shadowing. But you have to go one step further to really be able to hear idioms. You have to use them yourself.

Try to Use Them

When you try to use an idiom, you are thinking deeply about the situation they are used in. This helps you truly understand the idiom. It also helps you to predict when it might be used. Then if someone uses the idiom, you are already prepared. It becomes much easier to hear something if it is predictable.

How Can I Know if I Used it Correctly?

The big problem with trying to use the idiom yourself is this: how do you know you used it correctly? If you have a teacher or go to an English class, you can ask them. If you have English speaking friends, just ask them if you used the idiom correctly or not. But if you don't have any of the above, your best action is to go onto the Internet.

Get into a forum where you can ask if your usage is good. Or you can write a story right here on this site. I will edit it and record it for you, and the best part is there is no charge. Just go to the your story section of the site where you will find a form to write your story in.

Summary

Idioms are easy English words that have an unexpected meaning when they are used together in the idiom. You can find them in an idiom dictionary. Learn the meaning of the idiom with the dictionary. Then practise listening to them by shadowing, listen and repeat, and rhythm-clapping. Then try to use the idiom yourself a few times. Always make sure to practise several times.

Listen as many times as you like!