بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
الحلقة الرابعة من تعلم اللغة الانكليزية بطلاقة في ثمان خطوات واليكم الخطوة الرابعة مع تقديري واعتزازي اخوكم في الله ثائر العنزي

**Tip 4:  Learn The Most Common English Idioms

What is an idiom?  An idiom is two or more words with a special meaning.  

Idioms are difficult, because often you can't find them in a dictionary.  For example,  "to have a blast" is an idiom.   What does it mean?   You probably know "have", and you may know "blast" (which means "an explosion or a bomb")... but what does the the phrase "to have a blast" mean?

Actually it means "to have a lot of fun;  to enjoy a lot" 

There are thousands of idioms in English.  Luckily, you don't need to know all of them.  However, you MUST know the most common idioms-- because native speakers use them all the time.  
That is one difference between reading English and speaking English--   native speakers use more idioms when they speak.   To understand them fast, you must understand common idioms. 
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**How To Learn The Most Common Idioms and Speak Faster

There are two steps to learning idioms:
1.  Buy a Dictionary of American Idioms
2.  Listen to real English  (TV, movies, podcasts, etc.)

When you listen to real English, write down strange phrases that you don't understand.  Then use your Dictionary of Idioms to find the meanings.  
By doing this, you will improve your understanding and speaking.  You will be able to speak to native speakers faster.

Today I want to talk about another very important idea.   The idea is this:  written English and spoken English are, in fact, quite different.

Most students learn written English.  Textbooks teach written English-- even most "English Conversation" Textbooks. 

When we speak, we use different vocabulary, different grammar, and different pronunciation than what is in textbooks.

Here's one example.  In most textbooks, you might find a sentence like this:
"The theater sold all the tickets"

However, in normal speech, we would usually say,
"They sold out".

"Sold out" is a two-word verb-- also called a "phrasal verb".   You don't find many phrasal verbs in textbooks, but we use them constantly in speech.

In fact, for most common actions we have two (or more) ways to say it--  the more formal one-word form, and the more common two-word form.
 
How can you use these common words FAST ? 
You need to focus on spoken English.  In other words, find English that is first spoken, instead of written.   For example, listen to the radio, watch English language TV, listen to English podcasts. 

Good luck
Tha'ar Al-Anezy
th2009aar@yahoo.com