Read the following sentences slowly, thinking of the meaning of the words: She is laughing in her sleeve, She is out of her head, Look out or you will slip. Do you see why a foreigner just learning our language should have trouble in understanding them? Such groups of words as laughing in her sleeve, out of her head, and Look out in this sense, are called idioms.

An idiom is an illogical expression peculiar to a language. A child, learning a language as his mother tongue, grasps unconsciously the meaning of such a group of words taken as a whole; but it is impossible for any one to tell what part each word has in expressing the thought, and it is, therefore, impossible to analyze the expression. Every language has idioms, and the most difficult part of learning a new language is to master these unexpected illogical expressions.

We have many idioms in connection with verbals and verb phrases. The use of to as a mere sign of the infinitive (§ 202) is an idiom, and what makes it especially difficult is that there is no general rule for its use. For example, no one can tell why to is used in three of the following sentences and not used in the other three: You do not need to go, You need not go, You ought not to go, You should not go, Let me go, Permit me to go.

Most verb phrases are idiomatic. For example, it is impossible to tell the exact use of each separate word in these phrases: has been, may have been working.

The use of there in such a sentence as There are honest men (§ 21) is an English idiom.

Exercise 294

Point out the idioms in the following sentences:

1. He was beside himself with anger.

2. I had rather stay here.

3. I am going to stay here.

4. I used to live here.

5. I went to work. (Which of the two possible meanings is idiomatic?)

6. How do you do?

7. She must have been angry.

8. She set her house in order.

9. Suddenly the storm broke.