Использование идиом в английском языке (часть 1)

Деловой портал  delo.ua  совместно с British Council реализует проект "Английский язык on-line". В рамках проекта на портале появляются видеоинтервью с преподавателями British Council.

Тематика видеоинтервью — новые методики и подходы в изучении английского языка, интересные факты и практические советы по улучшению произношения и увеличения словарного запаса.

Тема сегодняшнего интервью — использование идиоматических выражений в английском языке. Интервью дает преподаватель British Council Мэтт Дрю ( Matt Drew). Это первая часть видео, посвященной этой теме.

В английском языке, по словам Мэтта Дрю, более 25 тысяч идиом. Считается, что только Шекспир ввел в обиход более 2 тысяч.  

В первой часть видео обсуждаются следующие идиоматические выражения:

to let the cat out of the bag — раскрывать секрет

to be over the moon — быть крайне счастливым

once in a blue moon — очень редко

Смотрите следующие видео на delo. ua 8 февраля  

Текст интервью

Hi. My name's Matt Drew and I've been working at the British Council Kiev for about a year now and long may it continue.

One of the most interesting aspects of the English language in my opinion is use of idiomatic expressions. So what is an idiomatic expression? Well it's something that doesn't sound or isn't what it sounds like. So for example if I say 'I don't want to let the cat out of the bag' I'm not really talking about cats or bags. I'm saying that 'I don't want to reveal a secret'. And if you think about it... if you put a cat inside of bag what will happen? The cat will scratch and try to get out of the bag. And this is what we rather poetically describe a secret. If you've got a secret inside you it's trying to scratch it's way out. So there is some kind of logic there but it would be difficult unless you knew the explicit meaning of that idiom to work it out from the actual words in the sentence. So that in essence is what an idiom is.

There are an estimated 25 thousand idioms in the English language which make it an integral part of our language. Shakespeare alone is said to have introduced over 2 thousand. It's a beautiful poetic side to our language and that's what I feel enriches our language a lot.

Let's have a look at some more examples. 'To be over the moon'. If you are 'over the moon' how do you think you feel? Are you unhappy? Are you happy? In fact you are not just happy, you're very very happy. You're ecstatic. I can't really fathom any logic here. Maybe when you're excited you're happy, you feel lights, you feel as if you're floating up and maybe that's why we say 'you're over the moon'. But that's in fact what it means.

Another idiom with the word 'moon' in it is 'once in a blue moon'. So you could say I was swimming once in a blue moon. This means that you don't do it very often. Again, maybe not so much logic in that but think how often do you see a blue moon? Never or very very rarely.

Okay, so that's the end of first video on idioms. Stay tuned and have a look at the next video. We're gonna talk on it further, this subject further. Thank you very much.