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In this lesson, you will learn about idioms — phrases whose meaning cannot be understood from the individual words. If someone says "it's raining cats and dogs," they do not mean animals are falling from the sky! Idioms are a colourful and important part of the English language, and they often appear in 11+ comprehension passages and vocabulary questions.
An idiom is a phrase or expression that has a figurative meaning different from its literal meaning. You cannot work out what an idiom means by looking at each word separately — you have to know what the whole phrase means.
| Literal meaning | Figurative (actual) meaning |
|---|---|
| "Break the ice" — to physically break ice | To make people feel comfortable in a social situation |
| "Piece of cake" — a slice of cake | Something very easy |
| "Hit the nail on the head" — to hammer a nail | To describe something exactly right |
Idioms test your understanding of language at a deeper level. In the exam, you might:
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