American English Quiz – Do you know these expressions?
American English is sometimes harder to understand because it uses a lot of idioms and slang expressions that are not popular in other parts of the world. American English speakers are also known to speak fast at times, making it harder for non native English learners to follow.
Today, we are presenting a list of 10 expressions that was compiled by Mark, one of our American English tutors. These are expressions very commonly used in day to day conversations at workplaces in the US. So if you are an International student looking for an internship or a job in the US, you should definitely know how to use these American English expressions.
Note: You can call these expressions slang or idioms as well.
How many of these American English expressions do you know?
Knock the socks off
To surprise someone by showing them with something really impressive
Example – The 6 year old singer knocked the socks off of the judges with her singing
a curve ball
Something unexpected, that is designed to trick
Example – The last question on the interview was a real curve ball.
Sweep it under the carpet
Hide or ignore something
Example – The government know it had made a big mistake and was willing to do anything to sweep it under the carpet
Burn bridges
break a relationship/cut off all ties in a relationship
Example – Rick was so angry with what his brother had done, he was willing to burn the bridge
Pot calling the kettle black
You accuse someone for doing something wrong, while doing the same thing yourself.
Example -The two politicians accusing each other of corruption was a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black
Comes with the territory
Something that has to be expected
Example – The actor knew the negative publicity was something that came with the territory.
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