English Idioms

          As human being, we usually interact with different people in different environment. Some of words, sentences, or even utterances are found difficult to understand. Vary in culture affects different understanding in cognitive aspect. So far, we need to merge in that specific environment to know well what is said or what is meant by the speaker of the native language. 

          Each area has its own way to say the expression. English here as major point of view even has its way to express meaning comprising of word to phrases differently based on where the people belonged to. Yes, like what is stated above it is based on the culture. It needs time to study by staying or comprehending the expression used personally. This talk next goes to the basic unit called Idiom. Based on Wikipedia, it is stated like what is written bellow:

"An "idiom" is a word or phrase which means something different from what it says. Idioms are common phrases or terms whose meanings are not literal, but are figurative and only known through their common uses. Because idioms can mean something different from what the words mean it is difficult for someone not very good at speaking the language to use them properly. Some idioms are only used by some groups of people or at certain times. To learn a language a person needs to learn the words in that language, and how and when to use them. But people also need to learn idioms separately because certain words together or at certain times can have different meanings. In order to understand an idiom, one sometimes needs to know the culture the idiom comes from. A better understanding of an idiom is that it is a phrase whose meaning cannot be understood from the dictionary definitions of each word taken separately."

Example of Idioms:

American Idioms such below;

*A day late and a dollar short

If something is a day late and a dollar short, it is too little, too late.

*All bets are off

If all bets are off, then agreements that have been made no longer apply.

*All hat, no cattle

When someone talks big, but cannot back it up, they are all hat, no cattle.('Big hat, no cattle' is also used.)

 etc.

Below are given the links to download some uses idioms and it is provided in document form. 
1) Country idioms : http://www.4shared.com/document/vWE7kvRj/Country_Idioms.html

2) Animal category  Idioms : http://www.ziddu.com/download/15302687/IdiomCategory_Animals.docx.html

Rgds.

MJ