The cat's out of the bag—idioms can be tricky, even for native English speakers. If you’re going to live in the United States or converse with English speakers, you’ll need to master our most commonly ...

What is the difference between an 'idiom', 'slang' and a 'phrase'? We take a closer look in this lesson below. Idioms, slang and phrases are three areas of language usage which are unique and have ...

English, the universal lingua franca, is full of historical peculiarities and idiosyncrasies that can confuse even the most seasoned language learner. American English, particularly, is swimming with ...

Idioms are quirky, playful, and sometimes downright strange and that is exactly what makes them so fascinating. Expressions like “spill the beans” or “estar en las nubes” (“to be in the clouds”) don’t ...

Language processing encompasses the mental mechanisms by which individuals decode, interpret and produce language, while idiom comprehension focuses on understanding fixed, culturally embedded ...

In the days before mass merchandising, poorly fastened axe heads would fly off while they were in use. The result was dangerous, hence why the phrase is used to describe risky behavior with ...