idiom and adverb
17.40
Idiom phrases
Idioms are groups of words that can mean things other than what they say.
The meanings vary from location to location (and possibly speaker to speaker),
and they often depend on context for meaning. Have a look at the following
sentences and see if you can figure out what’s happening:“You look hot!” the man said as he handed a water bottle to the sweaty athlete.
“You look hot!” the man said as he handed a glass of wine to the young woman.
Context, as you can see, is imperative.
Idioms are most distressing when they’re made from words which don’t really make sense in the context in which they’re used.
“What’s up?” Adam asked as he walked into the room. Matt looked up at the ceiling, wondering what he was missing.
“Want to hang out?” Adam asked. Matt – horrified – replied that he didn’t do anything wrong and didn’t need to hang.
“Catch you later,” Adam muttered as he left the room. Matt said he wouldn’t run away so Adam wouldn’t really need to catch him.
When idioms are created by combining a verb and an adverb or preposition – sometimes both – they’re called phrasal verbs. Phrasal verbs come in two varieties:
- Intransitive – cannot take a direct object (they’re always inseparable)
- Transitive – takes a direct object
Adverb phrases: form
An adverb phrase consists of one or more words. The adverb is the
head of the phrase and can appear alone or it can be modified by other words.
Adverbs are one of the four major word classes, along with nouns, verbs and
adjectives.
In the examples the adverb phrases are in bold. The other words that
modify the adverb are underlined:
We usually go on holiday in August.
Time goes very quickly.
The day passed quickly enough.
This works really well for its size.
Luckily for us, the cost was not so high.
We kept the new money quite separately from what
we’d already collected.
Phrasal verbs are different from verbs that use helper verbs. Helper verbs can change the tense or the person, but they can’t change the actual meaning of the verb.
Adverd phrases: types and meaning
An adverb phrase can consist of one adverb or an adverb plus other
words before it (premodification) or after it (postmodification). Adverb
phrases have many different meanings.
In the examples the adverb phrases are in bold. The other words that
modify the adverb are underlined.
Adverb phrases + verbs
We use adverb phrases most commonly to modify verbs. In the examples
the adverb phrases are in bold. The verbs that they modify are underlined:
Children grow up really quickly.
I exercise very regularly and I eat quite
healthily.
Adverb phrases + be
We use adverb phrases with be. This is especially typical of
adverbs of place:
I’m upstairs. I’ll only be a minute.
A:
Have you seen my gloves?
B:
They’re right there, on the table.
Adverb phrases + adjectives/adverbs
We use adverb phrases (adv) to modify adjectives and other adverbs:
I found it [ADV]extremely
[adjective]difficult to talk to her.
He drives [ADV]really
[ADV]carefully.
1 komentar
how to determine a sentence has meaning idiom? What the context that you mean, please give a short explanation and examples.
BalasHapus