Concept in Definition ABC

An idiom is a phrase or word that is part of the language informal. In other words, an idiom is a word or set of words whose meaning must not be interpreted in a way literal but as a expressionsingular with a sense of its own. It could be said that idioms are a language game, since they are terms or phrases that say something specific but are actually saying something different.

Examples of idioms

If I say "my friend I got long teeth "I am not referring to my teeth, since I am using an expression, that is, an idiom (in this case, putting long teeth is the same as being envious).

In Spanish we use idioms very often. Thus, pouring rain is equivalent to raining in abundance, having birds in the head is the same as To fantasize excessively or to do something to the feet means to follow instructions in a detailed.

If a Spanish student hears the idiom "touching one's noses" he might think that someone touches their nose and in reality its true meaning is very different. Something similar would happen with idioms such as "eat your head", "stay so wide", "take your hair", "drown in a glass of

Water", among many others.

Each community of speakers has its own idioms

Although Spanish is spoken in many Latin American nations, each country has its own idioms. In Mexico the exclamatory expression "come on, órale" which means "hurry up" or "come on" is very common, but also some words or expressions that are not understood outside of the Mexican context (such as chido, neta, no hay pex, chance, naco, dagger...).

Argentines also have their own idioms (a rat is someone selfish, a pucho is a cigarette and a quilombo is chaos). In Spain "ni de coña" means not even jokingly, "working" is equivalent to working, "how cool" is the same as saying that something is very good or interesting and the "colleagues" are friends. Venezuelan Spanish presents its singularities ("chevere" means interesting or attractive, "give it lead" means go ahead or do it and a "chama" is a girl).

Idioms, phrases and sayings

Idioms can be confused with phrases or sayings, but they are not the same. A phrase is a set of words that replaces another (an adjective phrase replaces an adjective and an adverbial phrase replaces a adverb, as happens with the phrase "a flag woman" or "in the blink of an eye").

In the case of sayings, these are popular anonymous sayings that convey some kind of teaching or advice and that they have some kind of rhyme (who gets up early, God helps him or tell me what you boast about and I will tell you what you lack).

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Topics in Idiom