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12 English phrases meaning something completely different

Improve Spoken English

I often bear on upon the subject of English idiomatic expressions on this web log for the simple reason that generally  our every-day speech consists of such and like  word combinations and it's making our spoken communication and so much more easier !

Just expect at the to a higher place paragraph – it's stuffed with various idiomatic expressions and collocations, and the one common trait they all share is that you accept to acquire the EXACT mode they're used and so that you can larn them off by heart and then use them in your own conversations.

Then there are proper English idioms you can't even understand unless you lot actually know what they mean – such as "It'due south no peel off my nose" or "Until the cows come habitation".

In that location are, however, sure English language phrases that may at first sound as if they don't accept whatsoever double-meanings AT ALL, even so they mean something completely different!

If you're an avant-garde English speaker and you've been communicating with real people in real life for years, this list will probably reveal nothing new to y'all.

If you're someone who's simply starting off in an English language speaking country, for example, the post-obit phrases might turn out to be an center-opener for you! 😉

You don't want to do that!

If you take this phrase literally, it sounds every bit if someone is making a argument that y'all don't want to do something (in which case it doesn't really make an awful lot of sense – I hateful, how can someone else possibly know what I exercise or what I don't want to exercise?!)

In reality though, this phrase is used when advising someone not to practise something, and so the real message behind this expression is "You lot shouldn't do it!"

Why do English speaking people say "You don't desire to do that!" instead of simply saying that 1 SHOULDN'T exercise it?

Well – it'southward simply the fashion conversational English goes! Don't ask WHY – just take that it'due south the way native English speakers speak, and life is going to be a whole lot easier for you.

Another version of the same phrase – "Yous don't desire to be doing that!" – is used just like the original one, and once again – don't enquire WHY there are two different versions of this phrase in utilise.

Just accept it and use whichever 1 yous desire to use! 😀

He can't help himself

When I heard the English verb "to aid" used in this context for the first time, I thought the person in question must be physically handicapped in one case they tin't help themselves.

I mean – the give-and-take "to assist" is quite simple and straightforward, and then when someone can't help themselves, they quite literally can't assist themselves with performing certain tasks, isn't that right?

Turns out it's not the case!

When someone says nearly another person that they can't help themselves, it means the person in question can't RESIST doing something, they're too weak to say NO to themselves ❗

Let'south say, you're eating too much chocolate on a daily footing, and your work colleague asks you lot 1 mean solar day why you're eating so much chocolate every day. You lot can but respond by proverb "I merely can't aid myself!" which means that it's a habit so strong you can't resist it.

Close up!

When someone tells you to close up, it's quite articulate what they want to tell you, isn't that right?

They're telling yous to shut your oral cavity, and needless to say, it'south quite rude to be talking to someone like that.

Sometimes, yet, the phrase "Close upwardly!" can be used to limited something completely unlike – namely, your amazement at something the other person is telling y'all about.

So if you lot're speaking with an English speaking person and they respond to you by maxim "Shut up! I can't believe it!", information technology doesn't necessarily mean they want y'all to close your mouth and stop talking to them. It merely ways they're and then surprised at what you merely said that they're using the phrase "Shut up!" as means of expressing they disbelief or excitement.

Certain plenty, you'll be able to read the true meaning of those words off the other person'due south face and tone of voice – the role of torso language tin can't exist underestimated, after all.

There might be some occasions, still, when you'd think the other person is being rude to you while in reality at that place'due south no damage intended, so please behave in mind that the expression "Shut upwardly!" can also take a pretty harmless meaning!

Go away!

I don't know almost you, only where I live (Ireland) this phrase is used the same manner as the one above ("Shut upward!") when expressing your surprise at something the other person has just said.

Basically it's merely some other mode of saying "Actually?!", and when they say "Go abroad!", nobody ways information technology literally. It' just a way of letting the other person know that you lot're shocked to hear it, and yous may as well commencement using this phrase in your own daily English conversations.

I see!

This is a very, very elementary English phrase, simply when an average beginner English educatee sees it, on nine times out of ten they'll retrieve it means that someone is maxim that they SEE something.

In fact, the phrase "I see!" is used conversationally all the time when people want to say that they become information technology, that they Sympathise it, and this is actually something that a lot of foreign English speakers should learn pretty early in their lives.

On way too many occasions my fellow foreigners say "I understand" while the phrase they should be using is "I see"!

Yous see, "I understand" sounds manner also formal when used during your daily conversations, so I warmly suggest y'all start using the much more than friendlier version of it "I run into!" instead.

Run across where I'm coming from?

If someone asks you lot if you see where they're coming from, you may assume they mean information technology quite literally, in which example you lot may be thinking "How on Earth am I supposed to know where they're coming from?!"

When people ask you this question, what they really mean to say is "Exercise you understand the reasons why I'g proverb this?"

Basically the chat would become something like this:

"I call up nosotros should swap this motorcar for the other one considering the production output is much lower now that the busy season is over."

You: ???

"Yous see where I'chiliad coming from?" (Do yous empathise why I'm suggesting we should swap the machines on the production line?)

You lot: "I haven't got a clue what you're talking about! Can you explain everything to me step-past-step please?"

Y'all may desire to…

This phrase may seem a fleck disruptive at first. You may… You desire… Why "You MAY Want" then? Why are the two words grouped together? Does it mean you lot're giving the other person a permission to do something equally in "You may do it"?

What this phrase actually means is quite the opposite to giving someone a permission to do something – it'south all most giving the other person a suggestion that they should probably cull to do whatever it is you're telling them to do!

Why non simply say "You should…" instead?

Well, you lot encounter – "You may desire to…" is a very polite style of letting someone know every bit to what would be the right class of activity while "You should…" might actually sound similar a control rather than a suggestion!

I don't buy it!

This English phrase has naught to do with buying stuff, it'southward all about Believing what you're told! 😉

If someone makes an empty promise to you or you're told some news you don't believe, you tin can answer with saying "I don't purchase it!" in which case you're merely making information technology clear yous don't believe what you're told.

I'm looking forward to…

Equally a beginner English student you may think this phrase means to be looking straight alee of y'all (as opposed to exist looking backwards or sideways, for case).

In conversational English and also in English in general, however, this phrase has a completely different meaning – it simply means to be expecting something, to exist actually waiting on something to happen!

I call back when I'd just started living in Ireland 11 years agone, my supervisor asked me at piece of work if I was looking forward to my holidays, to which I didn't actually know what to say considering the sentence didn't make a lot of sense to me.

Now I know only too well that it means to exist expecting something, and in example you didn't know it – it's about time to add this English phrase onto your vocabulary!

Tell me about it!

"Tell me about information technology!" doesn't mean "TELL me Near it".

It means "Yes, I know exactly what you're talking virtually – I have the aforementioned experience!"

Here's a situation to describe exactly what I'm talking about here:

You: "My trivial sister is real nightmare – she constantly makes demands to our mom and cries if she doesn't get what she wants!"

Your friend: "Tell me nearly information technology!"

What your friends is telling you is – "Yeah, I can completely relate to that because I likewise accept a little sister who'due south behaving that way!"

So now that you know what this phrase means, you wouldn't kickoff telling your friend More than ABOUT it. Yous'd but empathise your friend is going through a similar experience!

Information technology doesn't injure to…

When someone tells you that information technology doesn't hurt to do something, they don't literally mean that it's not going to be painful.

What they mean to tell you lot is that the activity in question is going to result is something really beneficial to yous, so it's definitely worth doing information technology!

How do y'all find this…?

I recollect someone asked me how I found my job to which I started telling them almost the recruitment bureau who helped me to land my job with the company…

What that person actually meant was – "What do you Recall ABOUT your chore?" – then in this example the English verb "to detect" has another meaning on top of the most common one which is to really discover something after yous've been looking for it!

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Now, did you find this article interesting?

Did you learn a few new English language phrases you didn't know existed?

If so – let your friends know about them past using the social sharing tool below!

Thanks for reading,

Robby 😉

P.S. Would y'all like to observe out why I'm highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you'll acquire why it's and so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to meliorate your spoken English!

P.South.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony Organization HERE!

English Harmony System

P.S. Are you serious about your spoken English comeback? Check out the English Harmony System HERE!

English Harmony System