English Experts

The question arose how essential are idioms in everyday life?

Oi pessoal, nada melhor do que um Americano para falar sobre o seu idioma pátrio. Hoje a nossa “correspondente Internacional” Mary Ziller, fala sobre as Expressões Idiomáticas (Idioms) 1. O texto como não poderia deixar de ser, está em Inglês. No final Wolfgang que é marido de Mary e professor (doutor em Matemática) da Universidade da Pensilvânia expõe sua opinião sobre o artigo. Vale a pena conferir! So, enjoy it!

Essential American Idioms

The question arose how essential are idioms in everyday life?

My supposition was that they are not so important in business dealings and journalism, but research showed that there is a whole site devoted to business idioms .

Apparently in business, sports idioms are very relevant to separate the men from the boys (distinguish between mature, experienced individuals and novices, or between competent and incompetent people)2.

An idiom is defined as a manner of speaking that is natural to native speakers of a language. I am going to go out on a limb (take a risk)3 here and suggest that that is probably why I never took much notice of them before. If you think there is something fishy about (questionable, strange, untrustworthy or surprising)4 my supposition, just ask anyone who is learning to speak English as a second language. He will tell you idiomatic English is very hard to figure out (understand)5.

An idiom is an expression whose meaning cannot be inferred from the meanings of the words that make it up. The standard example that comes to mind is ~It is raining cats and dogs (raining torrentially, a downpour).

Websites such as English Experts, with its dedicated and prolific author, Alessandro, raise the bar(set a higher standard)6, in excellence in online learning. He pushes the envelope (to move beyond the limit of what has usually been done or was the accepted standard)7 and surpasses what is offered by most wanna-bes (a person who likes to imitate, or even wishes to be, another)8. He thinks outside the box9 and is very innovative in his approach to learning English. A site of the caliber of his English Experts comes along only once in a blue moon (rarely, very seldom).

My husband has the following reaction to this article: “the end is over the top” (exaggerated and not believable). He thought I must be pulling your leg, (putting you on), but really, it was a piece of cake (easy as pie, very easy, simple) to write this about your blog, because I really feel like that.

Fontes:
1-http://www.peakenglish.com/slang/dailybiz.jsp
2-http://www.answers.com/topic/separate-the-men-from-the-boys
3-http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=632406
4-http://bits.westhost.com/idioms/id625.htm
5-http://bits.westhost.com/idioms/id204.htm
6-http://bits.westhost.com/idioms/id497.htm
7-http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/push+the+envelope
8-http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Wanna-be
9-http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/think+outside+the+box

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Autor: Alessandro é analista de sistemas e coordenador do English Experts, estudante autodidata, aprendeu inglês por conta própria via Internet. Atualmente trabalha na empresa Inovesys Technologies em projetos na área de comércio eletrônico. Outros textos do autor.