I still remember the day I asked an English teacher how I could say “um passáro na mão vale mais que dois voando” and he made fun of me and said that this kind of stuff can’t be properly translated.
Well, he was right, but that doesn’t mean English has no idioms, so, grab your gear, because I’ve “hit the books” to teach you some sayings in a “New York minute“.
First of all, I must say that “A Bird In The Hand Is Worth Two In The Bush” is what I originally intended to say back on that day…
But you know, idioms come “a dime a dozen” they’re so easy to find and some of them are “a piece of cake” to understand because they are so easy. It’s common sense that “haste makes waste“, so take your time while learning them, so you can “hit the nail on the head” while using these idioms.
If you don’t get them at first “keep your chin up” and don’t be sad, try harder and everything will be alright. Idioms take practice, remember that “Rome wasn’t built in a day” and neither was your vocabulary and “bear in mind” that if you can read this, you’re not “starting from scratch” and already have some knowledge in English.
I won’t list all idioms here, because that would ruin all the fun you’ll have searching for them, and “to make a long story short” I’ll give you some websites you can log on to and discover some more idioms.
So “stop beating arround the bush” and “cut to the chase“, check out http://www.idiomsite.com/ and http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/. If you like paper dictionaries, you can try Oxford Dictionary of Idioms too.
