Hello again. Sorry for the delay. I was distracted by a horrendously written online encyclopedia. But, anyway . . . "This guy is a burglar! A wrong 'un in pants in the heart of Brazil." Wrong 'un means a person of bad character

Personally I find a very useful method to be to get learners to watch English-language films, news reports, or even YouTube short-form video; get them to jot down words or expressions (more often than not colloquialisms) that they don't

Someone disables Rachel's brakes and her car crashes. Rachel: Oh, my God. Somebody, help! Somebody, help me! Clark Kent hears her using his superhearing and gets her out of the fliping in the air car before she even knows what hit her.

If you are speaking Colloquial, Idiomatic American English you will NEVER say, "Put your money IN where your mouth is." the colloquialism is "Put your money where your mouth is," or "Put up or shut up," "ante up

"I better" has worked its way into today's growing variety of colloquialisms - "I'd better" which, by extension, is "I had better" is, ahem, better English, but both are valid simply because both are

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And now, for my last humongous post! The Michigan Examination for the Certificate of Proficiency in English (ECPE) is put out by the University of Michigan English Language Institute (UM-ELI), the oldest and most respectable organization of its

Hope somebody can help me. What means: 'Cause I'm just a girl, little ol' me Don't let me out of your sight' What means 'little ol' me'? Come from germany, so that' why. Thanks for your help. "Little old

John Dean typed thus: Am I alone in disliking "invite" as a noun? It right sets me off, it does. Alright, I'll stop using it for awhile. I had thought this was one of the awfuler Americanisms, but not so. Both Merriam-Webster and the

Donna Richoux redled: If you must have a parallel to "I could care ... mild sarcasm? (Or, from a missing "like" or "as if.") Donna, are you claiming that there are people who say "I could give a damn" when they