Top 20 idiomatic expressions

An idiom is a combination of words which has a separate meaning from its literal meaning.

Top 20 idiomatic expressions that are very common in everyday usage are:

1. Once in a blue moon:  When something happens very rarely
2. Sick as a dog: To be very sick
3. Add insult to injury: To make a bad situation even worse
4. Speak of the devil: Used when the person you have just been talking about arrives at the scene
5. See eye to eye: Used to say that two (or more people) agree on something
6. A hot potato: Used to speak of a current affairs issue which many people are talking about
7. Down in the dumps: To be sad or depressed
8. Kill two birds with one stone: To do two things at the same time
9. Till the cows come home: For a very long time
10. Miss the boat: Used to say that someone missed his or her chance at something
11. Raining cats and dogs: To rain very hard
12. To hear something straight from the horse's mouth: To hear something from the authoritative source
13. A piece of cake: Used to refer to something that seems very easy to do
14. Pulling your leg: To tease someone or to joke about them
15. The last straw: Used to refer to the final problem in a series of problems
16. Something sounding Greek to someone: Used to mean that something is not understandable to someone.
17. Take something with a pinch of salt: Not to take what someone says too seriously as there is a big possibility that what he/she says is only partly true
18. Keep your chin up: Be happy
19. The best of both worlds: To have all the advantages
20. When pigs fly: It means ‘never’

English to Hindi dictionary

There are many websites and mobile applications that provide the feature of translating words from English to Hindi and vice versa. The meaning of an English word is now at the click of your mouse and is now no more a daunting task. You don’t have to carry with yourself huge dictionaries as there is ample number of resources available online that translates English to Hindi and vice versa. 

But we have to be always careful during translation especially when it is done on websites or mobile applications. The first point to keep in mind is to avoid translating entire sentences. Always use the website or application to know the meaning of a word or may be an idiom but to never type in complete sentences.  

This is because whenever a sentence is translated into other language there is a great possibility for the original meaning of the sentence to be lost. As the translation is done by online applications or websites and not by humans the possibility of mistakes is higher. In the translation, sometimes the tenses get changed, the order of words in sentences change and with this the meaning of the sentence is lost or the sentence is simply grammatically wrong.

Therefore, it is best to check with a speaker who knows to use Hindi to English Dictionary. S/he would ensure that the sentence is grammatically correct, the correct word is used and the tenses are in place. 

Therefore, it is best to avoid sentences and only use online resources of English to Hindi translation as dictionaries to look the meaning of the word.    

Kinds of Adjectives

Adjectives are referred to as ‘describing words’. They are called the same because they describe or modify nouns or pronouns. They usually precede or come before the noun or the pronoun that they modify.  For example:

She was wearing a red dress.

They live in a big house.

The model has a pretty face.

I was trapped in a dark room.

I have finished most of the cake.

In the above sentences, words like ‘red’, ‘big’, ‘pretty’, ‘dark’ and ‘most’ describe the nouns like ‘dress’, ‘house’, ‘face’, ‘ room’ and ‘cake’.  Therefore, they are the adjectives in the above examples.

Grammarians also consider articles ("the," "a," "an") to be adjectives.

Let’s see the major types of Adjective in brief:

Adjectives of Quality 

They are used to describe the nature of a noun and the characteristics of the noun. For example: big, small, large, dark, ugly, beautiful, etc.

Adjectives of Quantity

They are used to describe the amount or the approximate amount of the noun or pronouns.  For example: few, many, little, more, many, enough, too, etc.

Adjectives of Number

They are used to show the number of nouns and their place in an order.  For example: One, Two, Two-Third, each, other, etc.

Demonstrative Adjectives

They are used to indicate a particular noun or pronoun. For example: this, that, these, those.  

Interrogative Adjectives

They are used to ask questions about nouns. For example: what, which, where, etc. 

Pronouns and its kinds

Pronouns are used in place of a noun or nouns. 

Personal pronouns 

These are of three kinds. 

·         The person who speaks (I, My, Me, Mine, We, Us, Ours, Our)

·         The person whom you are talking to (You, Your, Yours)

·         The person who is being talked about (He, She, Him, His, Her, Hers, It, Their, Theirs, They)

Examples:

·         They should go at his place.

·         Do you want me to come with you?

·         What is her name?

In the first sentence, two pronouns ‘they’ and ‘his’ are used

In the second one, ‘you’ and ‘me’ are used.

In the third one, ‘her’ is used. 

There are three cases under personal pronouns:

Subjective Case

The subjective pronoun is the subject of the sentence. It does the actions. They are she, he, it, you, I, it, we

·         We went to Crafts Museum in Delhi.

·         He and I love donuts. 

Objective Case

The objective pronoun is the object of the sentence. It receives the action of verbs. They are her, him, it, me, them, us and you. 

·         I asked them to join us for dinner.

·         Do take me along with you. 

In the first example, ‘I’ is  the subjective pronoun and ‘us’ is the objective pronoun.

In the second example, ‘me’ and ‘you’ are objective pronouns. 

Possessive Case

Possessive pronouns tell us who owns something. They are his, hers, mine, yours, theirs, ours.

·         Is the book yours?

·         Yes they are mine.

Demonstrative pronouns

 

Demonstrative pronouns help identify nouns that are near or far with regard to distance and time. They are these, those, that, this. It takes place of nouns.

‘These’ is used to indicate things or ideas which are more than one. It is used when the things are near to you.

‘Those’ is used to indicate things or ideas which are more than one but are far from the speaker.

‘This’ is used to indicate a single thing or idea that is near to you.

‘That’ is also used to indicate a single thing or idea but is from the speaker.

·         These are my books.

·         I want that one.

·         I want those days to come back!

·         This is my personal gym.

Capitalization Rules and Its Importance in English Writing

Most of the English learners do not pay much attention to capitalization rules.

When it comes to writing English, you must master capitalization rules. To capitalize a word is to write its first letter as a capital one (upper-case letter). To make writing effective one has to know the rules of English capitalization. Without capitalization, the meaning of the sentence might change as well. Therefore, it is good to know the capitalization rules to make your writing as well as reading more effective and meaningful.

There are many rules of capitalization depending on the way we use them. One cannot fix the number of rules for capitalization.

Rule 1

Always capitalize first word of a sentence.
‘She lives in New York City. She is a dance teacher.’

Rule 2

Always capitalize pronoun ‘I’
Am I supposed to come with you?

Rule 3

Capitalize names
My brother Rakesh is a doctor.
My sisters Pooja and Reena live in London.

Rule 4

Capitalize titles that come before names of persons
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Doctor Arora, Professor Sangita
We mostly don’t capitalize titles when they come after the names.
‘Mukesh Ambani is the chairman of Reliance Industries Limited.’

Rule 5

Capitalize names of continents, countries, states, cities, towns, streets, seas
Indian Ocean, Singapore, Maharashtra, Jaipur, Kasturba Gandhi Marg, River Ganges, Lajpat Nagar

Rule 6

Capitalize names of languages, nationalities and religions
‘He speaks German.’
‘He is Korean.’
‘He practices Buddhism.’

Rule 7

Capitalize names of deities and holy books
God, Mahavira, Shiva, Quran, Gita

Rule 8

Capitalize names of businesses, schools, buildings, organizations
Yahoo, Don Bosco School, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Sir Dorabji Tata Trust

Rule 9

Capitalize names of wars and major battles
Second World War, Indian Rebellion of 1857, Kargil War

Rule 10

Capitalize names of historical periods and events
British Raj, Vedic Period, Gupta Empire, Indus Valley Civilization

Rule 11

Do not capitalize names of seasons
‘I love summers more than winters.’

Rule 12

Capitalize first and last words of names of publications. Also capitalize short verbs like ‘is’, ‘are’ or ‘be’. But do not capitalize small words like ‘a’, ‘an’, ‘the’, ‘but’, ‘as’, ‘if’, ‘and’, ‘or’
‘The God of Small Things’
‘Three Mistakes of my Life’

Rule 13

Capitalize brand names
Amul, Pepsi, Nike, Nissan

Rule 14

Capitalize names of days, months, holidays and days of observations
Tuesday, December, Diwali, Holi, Children’s Day

Rule 15

Capitalize names of awards and prizes
Grammy, Filmfare, Nobel Prize, Padmabhushan, Booker Prize

Rule 16

Capitalize in each acronym

CEO, NASA, TV, NDTV
As you read the rules you might have noticed that many of them are complicated and wonder that it might be difficult to remember all the rules by heart. To simplify things you should remember three key rules:

•    Always capitalize first letter of a sentence.
•    Always capitalize the pronoun ‘I’ in a sentence.
•    Always capitalize words that give a name to a person or thing.

As a matter of fact, all of the above sixteen stated capitalization rules are condensed in these three broad rules.



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