Exercise 1

In the following table, which words are spelled in American English and which in British English? Can you
give the alternative spelling in each case?

Example: AmE - mustache : BrE– moustache

airplane cheque theatre tyre

defense woolen pajamas gaol

draft grayed gauge gryphon

wagon videodisc untrammelled tyre

pretense thru quartet inflexion

jewelry inflection gypsy travelogue

2. Give the English spelling of the following words:

Catalogue, thru, humor, bark, quartet, apologize, center, centering, luster, pretense, inflexion, jewelry,
quarreled, woolen, harbor, pajamas, gipsy, program

3. American Idioms

As with any language, American English is full of idioms, especially when spoken. Idioms add color and
texture to language by creating images that convey meanings beyond those of the individual words that
make them up. Idioms are culturally bound, providing insight into the history, culture, and outlook of
their users. This is because most idioms have developed over time from practices, beliefs, and other
aspects of different cultures. As a culture changes, the words used to describe it also change: some
idioms fall out of use and others develop to replace them. With idioms in particular, the beliefs or
practices leading to their use may disappear while the idiom itself continues to be used. Idioms can be
so overused that they become clichés; or they can become slang or jargon, expressions used mainly by
specific groups or professions.

Idioms can be complimentary or insulting. They can express a wide range of emotions from excitement
to depression, love to hate, heroism to cowardice, and anything in between. Idioms are also used to
express a sense of time, place, or size. The range of uses for idioms is complex and widespread.

The complexity of idioms is what makes them so difficult for non-native speakers to learn. However, this
complexity is also what can make idioms so interesting to study and learn; they are rarely boring.
Learning about idioms, in this case those used in the United States, provides a way to learn not only the
language, but a little about the people who use it.

Exercise

Find the meaning of the idiom in italics.

1. What happened to your grandmother (grandfather/mother/aunt/etc.) when she was knee

high to a grasshopper?

2. Discuss the characteristics of someone you know who is the salt of the earth.

3. Describe someone you know who is a stuffed shirt.

4. What work would someone do if he were a white-collar worker / a blue-collar worker?

5. Who would you rather marry, a good egg or a Jack of all trades? Why?

6. Tell us about people who don’t let you get a word in edgewise.

7. Talk about a time when you had a heart to heart talk with a parent.

8. Do you know someone who sticks his/her nose in other people’s business? What does he
or she do?

9. What is the best thing to say to pop the question?

10. What would a woman wear if she is dressed to kill? What would a man wear?

11. Does your family keep up with the Joneses? How?

12. What makes you feel tickled pink?

13. What makes you hopping mad?

14. When were you at the end of your rope? How did you help yourself feel better?

15. Talk about a time when someone was on the warpath/rampage.

16. What might happen to make you chew someone out?

17. When was the last time that you were black and blue? What happened?
18. What makes you feel burned out?

19. Have you every felt down and out? What was the situation?

20. Have you ever felt like just letting yourself go to pot? When? Why?

21. Have you ever been in a jam? What got you there? What got you out?

22. Tell your friends about a time when you were in hot water with your teacher/boss.

23. If you are in a rut, what do you do to get yourself out of it? What about your friends?

24. When you were a kid, were you ever in the doghouse? How did your parents punish you?

25. Is there something you would do at the drop of a hat?

26. Tell us about times when you had to burn the midnight oil.

27. What have you done in the nick of time?

28. What have you done on the spur of the moment?

29. Who brings home the bacon in your family?

30. Tell us about something that cost your family a mint.

31. What you would do with money to burn?

32. Talk about something you bought for a song.

33. Do you know a penny pincher? What do they do?