Dusty corners of standard english

While I was telling my conversation class a story this morning I had to teach the expression ‘holding it,’ as in delaying a trip to the bathroom. It’s a very common expression but nobody knew it, which got us talking about other common expression in standard english (as distinct from idioms and colorful slang) that don’t often get taught in textbooks. For instance, ‘how are you doing’ as a greeting and the many uses of ‘get,’ ‘run’ ‘work’ and ‘make.’

Here’s a a few examples from today’s class. Anyone want to add to it?


how are you doing
holding it
work on- spend effort on without necessarily succeeding
run/work-function properly
mad-angry
get along- interact peacably
make- force (someone to do something)
used to- accustomed to

Most of your examples are phrasal verbs or idioms (such as ‘holding it’). Most people learn ‘mad’ as meaning angry before they learn it as meaning ‘crazy’. And I find my kids ofen confuse make and let…as in “His sister let him be mad” instead “His sister made him mad”. Some of the examples you give do get taught eventually, but probably not in beginning/intermediate courses because they are very complicated to teach since they often use common words in more abstract senses. For instance, holding it. You can demonstrate the action of ‘hold’. The students can physically see your hand. But can they see what you’re holding when you are ‘holding it’ in the sense of needing to go to the bathroom, but using your muscles to avoid doing so at that very instant? And what makes it different from ‘holding it’ when ‘it’ is a ball in your hand?

I like to teach slangy colloquialisms, ones people actually use, not the boring useless crap like ‘raning cats and dogs’. Students can get a real boost from learning expressions that native speakers frequently use, especially phrases that raise a smile.
It’s essential to give many, many examples of when you would use these phrases and some when you would not. I try to work in a couple every lesson and then review a few of the old ones.
Even if they never say them in real conversations it really improves their listening ability. Here is a small selection that I taught recently:

I’ll be back!
Keep the day job.
Hold that thought.
The little boys’ room.
Clean freak.
An attitude problem/ to have an attitude
Workaholic, chocoholic
Snowball in hell

This has been helpful. Thanks for suggesting ‘I’ll be back,’ which I hadn’t thought of.

I’m trying to avoid slang, vernacular and colofrul idioms because I’m more interested in standard usages whose meaning can’t be derived from their components but must be memorized (if that makes any sense). It’s not an entirely clear cut distinction, just the general direction I’m going in. Imani, your comment on phrasal verbs was especially helpful. Today I will teach a half hour segment just on phrasal verbs formed with ‘work, run, do, make’ etc.

Be careful, though. Phrasal verbs are a very tricky subject, both from a lexical and grammatical perspective.

It helps if your students are already familiar with common prepositions.

Example contrasting phrasal verbs from a simple verb+prepositional phrase:

The robbers held up the bank using machine guns and pantyhose masks.

The foundation that held up the bank crumbled away, causing the building to collapse.

The first example is a phrasal verb as the two words have nothing to do with the meaning when they are defined separately. The second is a verb+prepositional phrase (I think :ponder: ) because the bolded phrase has the same meaning when you look at the words separately.

Anyway, you might want to slow it down a little and just teach one or two really useful colloquialisms or phrasal verbs a day and reward (verbally or using a tangible reward) when your students use that day’s phrase correctly.

A whole lesson of these things would be best reserved for more advanced classes.

[quote=“ImaniOU”]Be careful, though. Phrasal verbs are a very tricky subject, both from a lexical and grammatical perspective.

It helps if your students are already familiar with common prepositions.

Example contrasting phrasal verbs from a simple verb+prepositional phrase:

The robbers held up the bank using machine guns and pantyhose masks.

The foundation that held up the bank crumbled away, causing the building to collapse.

The first example is a phrasal verb as the two words have nothing to do with the meaning when they are defined separately. The second is a verb+prepositional phrase (I think :ponder: ) because the bolded phrase has the same meaning when you look at the words separately.

Anyway, you might want to slow it down a little and just teach one or two really useful colloquialisms or phrasal verbs a day and reward (verbally or using a tangible reward) when your students use that day’s phrase correctly.

A whole lesson of these things would be best reserved for more advanced classes.[/quote]

Actually, both are examples of phrasal verbs. They just mean two different things. One means “to rob” and the other means “to support”. You can substitute “rob” and “support” back into the examples to double check.

But ImaniOU has a very good point. Phrasal verbs are a very tricky subject. Take “look up” as an example.

The private investigator looked up the building and found the address.
The private investigator looked up the building and saw the suspect climbing onto the fire escape.

In the first sentence it’s a phrasal verb. In the second it’s a verb followed by a prepositional phrase. A good way to test whether or not something is a phrasal verb is to move the object.

With a phrasal verb you can move the object between the main verb and the verb complement (usually the word that looks like a preposition) and the meaning of the sentence is unchanged.
The private investigator looked up the building./The private investigator looked the building up.

If moving the object changes the meaning of the sentence or makes the sentence ungrammatical, then it is not a phrasal verb.

That’s pretty much the definition of idioms. But I guess you just mean to avoid the colorful ones and to focus on utility idioms?

You might find the list on Dave’s ESL cafe to be useful.

“Hold Muh Beer and watch this…!” - a phrase often heard just before someone attempts an incrediby stupid act.
Death or physical injury usually follows hearing this phrase.

(I am not an english teacher on Taiwan)