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ESSENTIAL PHRASES
 What comes as a surprise, …  Instead of …
 It’s staggering, …  Otherwise
 What’s really striking is the fact that  Not only … but … as well
 It dawned on me  For the sake of
 I realized  With regard to
 To make matters worse  With intent to
 In the field of …  To take something for granted
 In the light of this statement  Under no circumstances/ On no
 Beyond the shadow of a doubt account/At any rate/In any case
(undoubtedly)  By leaps and bounds
 In all likelihood  It sheds light on (the matter)
 With no exceptions  Looking at the problem from a
 Yes. Fair enough. different perspective (from a different
 As a result. point of view)
 More or less.  To be on good terms with someone
 It’s widely known  As a matter of fact
 On the one hand/On the other hand  Personally speaking
 How comes? / How come?  Shame on you (those who …)
 A great deal of something  Come what may
 A great variety of something  There’s no point in …
 Although ….  Something (death) takes its toll
 However …  To take actions against
 Despite something/ In spite of
something

IDIOMS and PROVERBS

1. PEOPLE
 ‘Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of
ourselves.’
(Carl Gustav Jung)
 ‘Actions speak louder than words’
 ‘A friend in need is a friend indeed’
 ‘Better late than ever.’
 Busy bee
 Lazy bones
 Stuffed shirt
 Wet blanket (Joy Kill)
 Nosy parker
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 Couch potato
 Bookworm
 Daredevil
 Jack of all trades
 An early bird
 An eager beaver
 Fair-weather friend
 ‘It takes two to make a quarrel’
 To be over the moon
 To be in high spirits
 To be tickled pink
 To be under the weather
 To be happy-go-lucky
 ‘To err is human.’
 ‘No one is infallible’

2. HOME
 ‘There’s no place like home’
 ‘My home is my castle’
 ‘Call a spade a spade’
 ‘Something rings a bell’
 ‘Home is where the heart is’
 To build castles in the air

3. SCHOOL
 ‘Education is not preparation for life, education is life itself’
(John Dewey)
 ‘You are never too old to learn’
 ‘Great minds think alike’
 ‘To be all ears.’
 ‘More haste less speed’
 ‘Practice makes perfect’
 Far-fetched theory
 Pass with flying colours
 To think outside the box
 Teacher’s pet
4. WORK
 ‘Two heads are better than one’
 ‘A bad workman always blames its tools’
 To do something round the clock, 24/7
 ‘Money makes the world go round.’
 ‘No pain, no gain’
 Highfliers
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 Blue collars/white collars

 Bring home the bacon
 Task-oriented person

5. SOCIAL AND FAMILY LIFE

 ‘Out of sight, out of mind’
 ‘There are two sides to every question’
 Black sheep in a family
 To be a scapegoat
 To say something out of the blue
 To have green fingers
 A cornerstone in sb’s life
 Forgive and forget
 Nearest and dearest
 To be a people person
 Take your time
 Take it easy

6. FOOD AND DRINK

 ‘One man’s meat is another man’s poison.’
 ‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
 Pick-me-ups
 It’s a piece of cake
 In a nutshell
7. SHOPPING AND SERVICES
 ‘A penny saved is a penny gained’
 To pay through the nose
 ‘Money is the root of all evil’
 To be in the black/To be in the red
 Bits and bobs (stuff)
 It costs an arm and a leg
8. TRAVELLING AND TRANSPORT
 ‘A rolling stone gathers no moss’
 To have a travel bug
 To have itchy feet
 ‘When in Rome do as the Romans do’
 ‘Travelling broadens the mind’
9. CULTURE
 To read a book from cover to cover
 ‘Art for art’s sake’
 A clash of cultures
 To be in the limelight
 Culture vultures
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10. HEALTH AND SPORT

 ‘Prevention is better than cure.’
 ‘Train but don’t strain’
 To be alive and kicking (full of energy)
 To be safe and sound (survived)
 To be sick and tired of something (to be fed up with something)
 To be as fit as a fiddle
 To be as drunk as a lord
 To be as deaf as a post
 To be as sober as a judge
 Aches and pains
 To be a pain in the neck
 To feel pins and needles
 The slip of the tongue
 To have butterflies in one’s stomach
 To be an eye-sore
11. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
 ‘All that glitters is not gold.’
 Inside out
 Upside down
 To be on tenterhooks (waiting anxiously in apprehension)
 Higgledy-piggledy (chaotic)
 Teeny-weeny (itsy-bitsy)
12. NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
 ‘Birds of a feather flock together’
 ‘A bird in hand is worth two in the bush’
 ‘To know something from the horse’s mouth’
 ‘To have bats in the belfry’
 ‘Bed of roses’ (His life isn’t a bed of roses)
 ‘Still waters run deep’
 ‘The sky’s the limit’
 ‘Every cloud has the silver lining’
 To be green
 It’s raining cats and dogs
 To be at large
 It came as a surprise, out of the blue, like a thunderbolt
 Deep-rooted ideas
 To take to something like a duck to water
 It brought cows home to me
 Like a fish out of water
 Come rain or shine
 A rat race
13. NATION AND SOCIETY
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 To stand out from the crowd

 A jailbird
 To be a team player
 To be a people person
 To be a recluse
 A streetwise
 To play second fiddle
 ‘One good turn deserves another’
 All’s well that ends well