In Idioms^x, Constructions^x

I guess you don't get out much, Anon. Here is a sampling of respectable online sources. Doing a bit of Google research yourself will turn up many, many more.The American Heritage Dictionary: Grammarians have sometimes objected to the so-called double genitive construction, as in a friend of my...

Borne. And delete one's-- the idiom is bear in mind.From American Heritage: Thanks to the vagaries of English spelling, bear has two past participles: born and borne. Traditionally, born is used only in passive constructions referring to birth: I was born in Chicago. For all other uses,...

Hello qingqing The usual idioms are "how does it feel to be..." or "how do you feel about being..." So A is a hybrid version. That said, you do hear the A construction in everyday speech. By the way, it helps us if you give your post a more detailed Subject. I've amended it so that you can...

I thank both of you for the replies. Clive wrote the following: The principal of the school or the administration of the school will always say English is taught at our school It's OK to say this, it's present passive. But it's not necessary that you use the passive, you can use active...

Hello Hela A1) Sylvester cried his eyes out. A2) The dog barked him awake. A3) Dora shouted herself hoarse. A4) My mistress grumbled herself calm."Cry one's eyes out"(#A1) and "shout oneself hoarse"(#A3) are idioms. "Grumble oneself calm"(#A4) is not so popular as an idiom but it was a...

The trouble is that all the readers automatically think 'back to Nature', and are distracted from the flow of your poem by wondering about the odd formation which is so near to the expected. Beyond that, 'the nature' is not a natural collocation; it does not take an article unless we are...

"... they could not see clearly enough ..." "clearly" is the norm is this type of construction. But there's an idiom, "to see one's way clear to ...". They could not see their way clear to make such an important purchase at this time. CJ

Idiom))-bring home the bacon Meaning)))- earn your family`s living Example))-Recently he has been working very hard trying to bring home the bacon. He has no time to do anything else. ____________________________________________________________________________ Idiom)))-butter up Meaning))-...

My understanding about 'idioms' is that it is such a phrase that a teacher cannot explain its construction to students with his knowledge of English grammar ROFL

Mav My understanding about 'idioms' is that it is such a phrase that a teacher cannot explain its construction to students with his knowledge of English grammar. The English teachers who taught me in school days knew millions of 'idioms'. For them 95 % of English phrases would have been...