How to Add Spice to your English – Idioms, Idioms, Idioms

1. Idioms: Wenn jemand den Speck nach Hause bringt

Ein idiom ist eine bildhafte Redensart, deren Gesamtbedeutung nicht der Summe der Bedeutungen der einzelnen Wörter entspricht: If you take the bull by the horns, wenn Sie also den Stier bei den Hörnern packen, dann ist in Wirklichkeit gar kein Stier mit Hörnern da, sondern ein Problem, dem Sie sich direkt, ohne Umschweife und mutig stellen.

Hier nun einige geläufige idioms.

Ordnen Sie dem idiom in der linken Spalte jeweils die passende Erklärung zu.

She brings home the bacon.	She avoids attracting attention.
She easily flies off the handle.	She can't prove that what she says is right.
She has both feet on the ground.	She doesn't say what she thinks.
She hasn't got a leg to stand on.	She manages things strictly and effectively.
She keeps a low profile.	She often loses her temper.
She keeps her own counsel.	She says things that annoy me.
She rubs me up the wrong way.	She's a candidate.
She runs a tight ship.	She's much better than him.
She runs rings around him.	She's not particularly good.
She's not going to set the world on fire.	She's practical and sensible.
She's thrown her hat in the ring.	She's the breadwinner.

(Aus: Hueber Übungsbuch Wortschatz Englisch.)

2. Ersetzen Sie die rot gedruckten Formulierungen durch die korrekte Form der nachstehenden idiomatischen Ausdrücke.

alive and kicking

bark up the wrong tree

blow hot and cold

blow the whistle on

burn the midnight oil

carry the can

drag your feet over

jump on the bandwagon

like a million dollars

open up a can of worms

what the doctor ordered

a. He keeps changing his mind. You never know where you are with him.

b. I don't think she's ill. When I saw her yesterday, she was just fine.

c. If you think it's all my fault, you're blaming the wrong person.

d. In Brazil, environmentalists have been murdered for alerting the authorities to illegal logging operations.

e. We've got enough to worry about without starting on that set of problems.

f. Michelle looked very pretty in her pink dress.

g. We'd just moved into a larger flat, so the rise was just what we needed.

h. What are you doing at the weekend? I suppose I'll be working late into the night to prepare for Monday's exam.

i. When it looked like he was going to win, more and more people supported his campaign.

j. The authorities know about the problem but are deliberately slow in dealing with it.

k. You know the whole thing was your idea, so don't expect me to take the blame.

(Aus: Hueber Großes Übungsbuch Englisch.)

3. Vielleicht interessieren sich Fortgeschrittene für den folgenden idiom-gesättigten Text, den wir nur mal so aus Spaß an der Freud' (just for the fun of it) zusammengestellt haben.

Learning the ropes

My first day at Rinaldo's, a busy Manhattan restaurant. Angelo, the manager, introduces me to the staff: "She's a total rookie, so show her the ropes and be nice to her, huh?"

Some of the waitresses manage a smile; the others stay on the fence, checking me out.

As a new kid on the block, I'm going to be a wrench in the works, and everyone knows it.

Gloria has drawn the short straw. It'll be her job to break me in. The assignment means extra work and less in tips, but she takes me on board without batting an eyelid. "Just trail me through the evening's work," she says. "It's mostly a matter of picking it up as you go along."

By the time I've lugged about a hundred food orders to the upstairs dining area and the same number of stacked bus trays down to the kitchen, the place is jam-packed with the after-theatre crowd. No matter how fast I unload the dirty dishes and pick up the fresh orders, one thing's for sure: I can't keep up.

Before long Pietro, the head chef, has blown his cool. "Server number 13," he barks, "we've got a traffic pile-up down here and it's all your fault. Will you try and pick up your food orders before they pass the sell-by date?"

My diners are getting hot under the collar too. "Tell them it's your first night," says Gloria. "Go for the sympathy vote. It's your only chance of improving your tips."

I do, but it doesn't make much of a difference. By the time even the dawdlers have left, I've cleared a piddling $29.50 in tips while she has pulled $77 – together much less than she usually makes solo.

I'm dead on my feet. "Don't worry, kid," says Mario, the barman. "The first ten shifts are the toughest. After that, you're home free."