Hi students! Welcome to the world of idioms! Although they can be pretty illogical and some even say idiotic (haha) they still are an essential component of everyday communication, especially in the United States.

So what's in an idiom?

Well, it's a group of words that have a meaning that is different from the original words and can be confusing.

However, they all have an origin story and if we get the hang of it (there I used the first idiom!) it becomes easier with time. 'Hang of it' means to develop the ability to do or use something correctly with time.

The orgin of this idiom goes back to the 19th century in America when people after several attempts of hanging and rehanging the handle on the axe head, finally got the position right and were able to start holding and using the axe correctly! And thus was born the idiom 'get the hang of something'.

The video above is a clip from an episode of a very famous American TV show called ..................'The Big Bang Theory'. Yes you guessed it right!

You can see Sheldon very frustrated and shouts 'No it's the last straw!'

'The last straw' is an idiom meaning that it is probably going to be the last of all difficulties that one is facing, implying that they have already endured a lot and cannot accept any more problems and will not give any more chances.

In the video clip, Sheldon is frustrated because he is seeing a lot of changes in his partner and around him and has already faced a lot of annoying situations and does not want to face them anymore.

Some other common idioms used in America are 'piece of cake', 'break the ice', 'hit the sack', 'under the weather' and 'cost an arm and a leg'. 

Can you guess what their meanings might be? Feel free to post your comments below!