Kick the bucket, buy the farm: why English has so many ways to say "die"
2026-07-31
English has dozens of euphemisms for death — kick the bucket, six feet under, pushing up daisies. Where they came from and which ones you can safely use.
Blog
The stories behind idioms, proverbs and slang — real evidence, real examples.
An arm and a leg, a dime a dozen: money idioms in English and Vietnamese
2026-07-31
Money idioms reveal what a culture thinks about wealth. English's cost an arm and a leg, break the bank and a dime a dozen, with their Vietnamese cousins.
Under the weather: how English uses the forecast to talk about feelings
2026-07-31
Raining cats and dogs, every cloud has a silver lining, chasing rainbows — English weather idioms decoded, with their meanings and real examples.
8 Vietnamese proverbs every learner should know first
2026-07-31
Uống nước nhớ nguồn, gần mực thì đen — the Vietnamese proverbs (tục ngữ) that carry the culture, explained for learners with literal translations.
Codswallop and nincompoops: Victorian slang that deserves a comeback
2026-07-31
From Hotten's 1874 slang dictionary and Brewer's 1898 Phrase & Fable: Victorian insults and expressions too good to stay buried.
Anh cả or anh hai? A field guide to North vs South Vietnamese words
2026-07-31
The same Vietnamese thing often has two names — one Northern, one Southern. Eldest brothers, T-shirts and pork belly: a learner's guide to regional vocabulary.
From piece of cake to in a pickle: what food idioms say about English
2026-07-31
English thinks with its stomach: piece of cake, spill the beans, big cheese, in a pickle. The tastiest corner of the idiom dictionary, explained.
How to make idioms stick: what actually works (and what doesn't)
2026-07-31
Reading idiom lists does almost nothing. Retrieval practice, context sentences and spaced repetition are what move idioms into long-term memory.
Sổ thông hành: the pre-1975 Vietnamese words the diaspora kept
2026-07-31
Overseas Vietnamese communities preserve vocabulary from before 1975 — sổ thông hành, máy vi âm, quan thuế. A dictionary of a language's time capsule.
Playing the lute to a buffalo: how the trâu shaped Vietnamese idiom
2026-07-31
The water buffalo is Vietnamese culture's hardest worker — and its favorite idiom ingredient. Đàn gảy tai trâu, trâu buộc ghét trâu ăn, and more.
Nói lái: the Vietnamese art of speaking backwards
2026-07-31
How Vietnamese swaps sounds between syllables to hide jokes in plain sight — tôi yêu rồi becomes ôi tiêu rồi — and how Idiomer decodes it automatically.
27 everyday English idioms you'll actually hear
2026-07-30
A practical starter set of English idioms that still appear in real conversation — with plain-English meanings and links to full entries with examples.
6 pairs of English and Vietnamese idioms that mean the same thing
2026-07-30
Đứng núi này trông núi nọ and the grass is always greener: idiom pairs where English and Vietnamese arrived at the same wisdom by different roads.
Gen Z slang, actually explained: rizz, no cap, delulu and friends
2026-07-30
A field guide to 2020s slang for parents, teachers and English learners — what rizz, no cap, bussin, mid and brain rot actually mean, with real evidence.