Learning English: 9 American-style idioms

In order to master a foreign language at a level close to the native speaker, and even if it’s just better to feel it, you can’t do without idioms. English is not an exception here - the ability to use idioms, stable expressions or phrasal verbs in a place will make your speech in this language much more vivid and help make a good impression.

The problem is that there are quite a lot of idioms in this language, and it’s hard to figure out which ones relate to the British version of English and which ones are used in the USA. I found an interesting post with a selection of interesting American-style idioms and prepared an adapted translation of it.
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Pass the buck

This phrase is used when you want to describe a situation in which responsibility for something is transferred to another person (if the speaker does not want or cannot for some reason solve the problem independently):

An example :

My boss is always passing the buck to me, so I am the one who has to do all the dirty work, and I get blamed by everybody for everything, even though it's my boss's responsibility.

Going dutch

Not the most widely known expression. It is used to describe the situation on a date when a guy and a girl divide the score in half.

Example:

I went on a great date last night. Not only is she really interesting, but she insisted on going Dutch on the check, which I found really refreshing.

Hooked [on Something]

Hooked means you're hooked on something. Dependence - including in a good way - can arise from many things, including food, TV shows, habits (the same as smoking - here the value can be negative).

Example:

“How are you enjoying the new Stranger Things series?”

“I'm totally hooked. It's brilliant. ”

To rideide shotgun

This idiom means that you are in the car in the passenger seat next to the driver. If the company rides in the car, then the person in this place is in a winning situation - usually there is more space, you can control the audio system and air conditioning.

This expression has an interesting story - it originated in the days of the Wild West. Then the robbers often robbed stagecoaches, therefore, next to the "driver" was usually an armed guard who held the same shotgun in his hands to start firing if necessary.

Nowadays, in the company of people, this place goes to the fact that “shotgun” will shout before everyone else - a rather funny and even cute tradition.

Example:

Tom was riding shotgun because he was the first to shout 'shotgun' when we came out of the cinema.

To chill out

A more common phrasal verb, which can simply be translated as "rest". In general, it can be used even without the “out” particle, the meaning of this will not change. This is an interesting feature of phrasal verbs - the words included with them in the phrase often have no meaning, as here the word “out” itself does not mean anything.

Example:

“Hey John, what are you doing?”

“I'm just chilling out, watching a bit of TV.”

To hang out

To hang out means just “spending time” without any particular activity. You can be “hanging out” with someone (with friends), somewhere (in a mall). You can often hear an invitation to hang out - if you say so, you just want to spend time with the person, but you have no specific plans.

Example:

“It would be really great to hang out sometime. What are you doing at the weekend? ”

Bells and whistles

In Russian, there is a phrase with a similar meaning, “with all the bells and whistles” - when you have something with the most powerful functions or an item in some kind of maximum configuration, it means that it has bells and whistles. Not necessarily the phrase is used to describe technological features, so you can even say about lunch in a restaurant or a separate dish to which there are a large number of additives.

Examples:

Look at all those buttons and features. These new cars come with ALL the bells and whistles!

For dinner I had a great steak with all the bells and whistles.

To Have a Crush [on Somebody]

An interesting expression that describes the romantic and simply strong feelings of one person towards someone else. You can use it to describe the attraction to a guy or girl, and even to a star in your favorite movie.

Example:

“I've always had a massive crush on Brad Pitt. He's so gorgeous. ”

Rip-off (Noun) / To Rip [Somebody] Off

A negative expression, which means that someone overpayed for a product or service. It is used both as an exclamation, and as a calm statement of fact, or during the trading process (“something is a little expensive”).

Example:

“How much did you pay for that jacket?”

“I think I paid 100 bucks.”

“I'm sorry, but that's a rip-off. I saw it in another store for half that price just last week. ”

And what interesting English idioms do you know?