English Expressions

I am an english speaking native, and I have noticed that I use a lot of old expressions that don't make any sense to my ESL friends. 

Write down any english expressions you know and what they mean.  Or, if you've heard an english expression that you don't understand, write it here!

"Hind site is twenty-twenty"  – Hind is short for behind, or, in this case, the past.  And perfect vision is 20/20.  So, this means, when you are looking back on the past, you can clearly see what you should have done.  People use it when someone is regretting doing something.  You tell them this to comfort them, because we can all see what we should have done after we have made a decision, but it is not so easy at the time when the decision needs to be made!

"You catch more flies" – This is short for another old expression, which is "You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar".  This means that you will have more success with people by being nice to them.

"A little bird told me" – this would sound pretty crazy if you took this literally!  This is simply a cute way for someone to say that they're not going to tell you where they heard a secret!

"One man's trash" = the whole saying is "One mans trash is another mans treasure".  An example of this would be: a man who just wants a car that works wouldn't want an old car that is broken, but someone who loves to restore antique cars would love to have it!  Thus, what is garbage to the first man, would be a treasure to the second.

Thanks a lot for your expressions.Indeed,your expressions are valuable for the people who is learning English.Please tell more again and how to use these expressions in English sentence.I mean usage of expressions.

Hi Dreamkatch,

Yulica (Agnolia) suggested meto ask to you int his thread in you couldexplain me the  following phrase's meaning, took from a nice song….

"I turned over a new leaf" 

Oh!  Turning over a new leaf means to start something over again.  Usually it's about the way a person lives their life.  Say someone drinks a lot and is very unhappy in their job, and then they decide to quit their job, stop drinking, and move to another city to start all over again.  That would be called "Turning over a new leaf"

Thank you dreamkatch, you're clear with explanations..

If  you don't mind I'll ask more help from you…

really nice expression i did not hear about them before i will try to memories them and use them when it is a proper to use them or in their own situation

a nice song says

men and dry

what does it mean?

"men and dry"??

What song is that from?

Sounds like something from a commercial for a deodorant called, "Mennen Dry". 

ooooops, sorry, I made a mistake, the right expression a meant, which is the title of a "Pet Shop Boys"  's song is

Home and dry

I don't think I've ever heard that, not as an expression anyway.  I've heard Safe and Dry.  If it means the same thing, then it basically just means you are unscathed.  I think it comes from storms, like you didn't get wet in the storm, so you're dry.  If nothing happened and everything is ok, you're dry.