From William Shakespeare to Seamus Heaney, figurative language such as idiom, metaphor, symbolism and allegory all function to make a poem sound more colourful and appealing to the reader. But are we ...

Being a linguist—and someone who has tried to learn several languages (including English) in addition to my mother tongue (Flemish Dutch)—I have an annoying habit: instead of paying attention to what ...

Mastering English idioms is more than just memorising funny phrases—it’s about sounding natural and fluent. Research shows that gaining control of idiomatic expressions is an important indicator of ...

So to speak, to coin a phrase, if you know what I mean. In Denmark, if someone is drunk they might say he's "vissen" (withered) and instead of being "under the table" he’ll be "i hegnet" (in the fence ...