One of the most fun parts of teaching English to students is by letting them discover figurative language.  Figurative language is any speech that is not meant to be taken literally.  Students in traditional classrooms and ESL classrooms will enjoy learning about three of the most interesting types of figurative language in English: idioms, oxymorons, and onomatopoeia.

Idioms are expressions that cannot be figured out by understanding the meanings of the words that make up the expression. Only native speakers of a language – - English in this instance – - will understand what the expression is referring to.  ESL students often have to be taught these phrases, or idioms, individually.  Some examples of English idioms are:

• Green Thumb – - having a special ability to make plants grow
• Frog in Your Throat – - being hoarse and unable to speak clearly
• Let the Cat out of the Bag – - reveal a secret

Oxymorons are words that are used together to create a single meaning, but usually mean the opposite of one another when used separately.  Students can hardly fail to find the humor in the fact that English speakers “park in a driveway” and “drive in a parkway”.  Other fun examples of oxymorons might include:

• minor catastrophe
• death benefits
• civil war
• soft rock
• pretty ugly

Even MORE crazy, perhaps, are contronyms words which are their OWN opposites!  Think it’s impossible?  Then think again…

• clip – - can mean to fasten; can mean to detach
• custom – - can mean usual; can mean special
• left – - can mean remaining; can mean departed from

Onomatopoeia, besides being almost impossible to spell, is another fun way to explore English vocabulary.  Onomatopoeia are words that sound like the object they name or the sounds those objects make.  Who doesn’t love just to say words like “zip,” “slurp,” “boom,” “woof,” “clang,” and “neigh”?? 

Vocabulary.co.il has multiple opportunities to explore the fun side of English with games like The Slang Game, Match and Make: Oxymorons, and with topics like “Sounds” and “Contronyms” as topic choices for our classic games.