Studies in English Idiom

[arcadius]

Studies in English Idiom-This book is intended for use in the first and second years of the secondary course. It has been divided into two parts, each part being intended for a year, although an advanced first year form could proceed with the second part, and a backward second year form might with advantage revise the first part. It is intended to precede, or at least to accompany, the study of composition, and treats chiefly of those speech-forms which present difficulties to Egyptian students. The best books we have had so far on the subject of composition have been primarily intended for English students, and naturally neglect many of the idioms most difficult for Egyptians. Of these difficulties, the question of tenses and their sequence is perhaps the most obstinate, and has received accordingly full treatment.

The exercises have been designed to contain no abstract ideas or difficult words to divert the student's attention from the question under consideration, but at the same time to provide material for the acquisition of new words. Most of them may be done orally or in writing, as the teacher may desire. The Appendix contains a list of the commoner mistakes to which Egyptian students are liable, and should be consulted with every composition.

The exercises on letter-writing may be done independently of the rest of the book at the discretion of the teacher.

Students should remember that it is not possible to give rules for every occasion. An expression may be perfectly correct in one case and wrong in another, the deciding factors being the intention of the writer and the context. The English language is not, in fact, based upon rules, but the rules are based on the habits of language that have grown up in the course of centuries. Certain expressions customary in the time of Shakespeare would be considered wrong now; but we must not, therefore, say they are "wrong," but that they are no longer "customary." The only sound way in which a knowledge of what is customary or not can be acquired is by constant reading.

Certain idioms have become so fixed by use that it may be easier to commit them to memory, and regard them as based on "rules," but the learning of rules can never take the place of reading as a means of mastering English.

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