Mrs. Dowling's Literature Terms

Study Guide

At the end of this unit you will be able to:

• identify idiomatic expressions

An idiom or idiomatic expression refers to a construction or expression in one language that cannot be matched or directly translated word-for-word in another language. For instance, the English expression, "She has a bee in her bonnet," meaning "she is obsessed," cannot be literally translated into another language word for word. It's a non-literal idiomatic expression, akin to "She is green with envy."

Example: A piece of cake is an expression that doesn't really have anything to do with eating, but rather refers to how easy some task might be.