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idioms

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16 English expressions for winter weather

January 19, 2022
A happy girl is lying down in the snow and smiling.

– This is just the tip of the iceberg! – It was basically a snowball effect. Do you know these English expressions? How about other winter-themed sayings? English sayings and idioms are an important part of both spoken and written language. Idioms are expressions that figuratively describe something and whose original uses have sometimes changed to mean something else. All of the intricacies of language cannot be understood simply through the meanings of individual words – a combination of words can mean…

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Language learners’ false friends

July 27, 2018

False friends (German: Falsche Freunde) refer to words or phrases in two languages which are similar but which mean different things. These resemblances can be external, meaning that the words look the same, but the words can also have a similar pronunciation. False friends can be perplexing for both language learners and language professionals. Below are some words we have gathered that may give you a headache! gift ≠ das Gift English: gift = German: das Geschenk German: das Gift = English: poison chef…

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Colloquial expressions

June 21, 2018

Knowing the basics of language is, naturally, the foundation of good speaking skills. But after you’ve learned to communicate in the new language to some extent, you can start working on some useful colloquial expressions to make you sound even more natural and fluent. Start by listening Listening to native speakers is an excellent way to pick up common colloquial expressions. Try to actively memorize repeating structures and phrases and rehearse them later by yourself. Imitate a native speaker Imitation…

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