American English is a flamboyant language.

It’s rife with puns, allusions, enigmas. Slang alone — of which Americans are connoisseurs — is a continuous melodic hum within everyday conversation.

For visitors from other countries, however, and particularly for international students on US campuses, our idioms have all the transparency of cannonballs.

Social scenarios are especially bewildering. What does your hostess mean when she says she’s been feeling “under the weather?”* How are you to respond when someone asks you to describe yourself “in a nutshell”?*

While the list of such sayings is nearly inexhaustible (and exhausting!), below are ten common English idioms that may make your first American chats a little easier:

• Break the ice: to dispel the initial awkwardness of social gatherings by introducing yourself, posing a question, telling a joke, etc.

• Play it by ear: to avoid making definite plans so as to improvise and adapt

• Chew the fat/Shoot the breeze: a leisurely, casual chat

• Beat around the bush: usually a social blunder, this means speaking for a long time when trying to delay doing or saying something else

• Cat got your tongue: asked of someone who is quiet or shy

• Beat a dead horse: trying to persuade someone when you have no chance of succeeding

• Steal your thunder: to divert attention from another speaker onto yourself by, for example, telling an anecdote that’s even more bizarre or amusing than the one told by the other person

• Just kidding: to joke, not mean seriously, prank

• Out of the blue: something that happens unexpectedly

• Whole nine yards: said of someone or something that includes everything necessary or possible in a given situation

To become familiar with American English, you must first be startled by it. For native speakers, the above-listed idioms are cliches, but for international visitors they are more akin to poetry or riddles.

That’s a rare privilege. Enjoy it.

*Note: To feel “under the weather” is to feel ill. “In a nutshell” is to state something succintly.

Related Posts

1. American English Idioms: College Edition
2. 12 American Travel Idioms for When You Hit the Road
3. English Idioms for Money & Business
4. American Regional English Words & Phrases
5. American English: A 2-Minute Introduction

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