What's in a phrase?

How many of you have seen Notting Hill and really understood what the expression ups-a-daisy meant? Why should a tournament be round robin and not round sparrow? All these and more are phrases which we use or come across regularly. Sometimes for people using phrases in daily course of life it gets annoying if it is not understood by the other person– not to mention in such scenarios, the phrase loses its impact as well.

But help comes in phrases.org.uk, a website dedicated exclusively to phrases. Browse this website for a couple of weeks, and you will definitely improve your knowledge about the meaning and usage of commonly used phrases.

To start with, you can read up on the meaning and origin of phrases using the Phrase Finder. This section will apprise you of the exact meaning and how a certain phrase actually came into existence, and why the words used in a phrase will not have the same impact if replaced with other words.

For instance, did you know that the phrase ‘make a bee-line for’ is actually derived from the actual behaviour of bees? The famous ‘beat about the bush’ also comes from actual hunting practices to catch birds by beating the bushes. There are some very interesting backgrounds of the phrases and the best part is that they are only a couple of paragraphs long. The brevity here ensures that you can read and grasp the history pretty quickly.

You will find a phrase thesaurus as well. Unfortunately, you have to pay to use it completely. But if you are able to do that, it will definitely prove to be an invaluable resource. All you need to do is enter a word, and the thesaurus will display a number of phrases which contain that particular word along with its meaning. So when you are writing something, this resource can come in very handy.

Another interesting feature is that you can join and participate in the discussion forums. If you are stuck at a particular phrase and cannot find its meaning, simply post it here, and someone will help you out. Furthermore, if you want to use a phrase in your piece of writing, and you cannot remember the one which would fit there, again, you can seek help from this forum.

This website is also an excellent resource for students of English language who have difficulty with expressions while writing compositions. The best way to use this website is to refer to it whenever you encounter a phrase which you cannot understand. In this way, you will build up your bank of phrases and ways to use them.

To access phrases with meanings, log onto http://www.phrases.org.uk