Are these idioms or phrasal verbs?

susumuya · #1 22-Nov-2006, 21:48

Could somebody help me to check if I am correct or not?
I think all of them are idioms, but I don't know if I am on the right track...
Thanks a million!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1. We take them back to the homes they grew up in for a trip down memory lane. (in your memory of the pleasures of past events)

2. I fall in love with the boy next door. (to begin to love sb.)
3. It was here that she first set eyes on her future husband. (see)

4. I used to play with her sister. (accustomed to)
5. I remember his family coming round for drinks at christmas.

6. I'd always be beside myself with excitement. (extremely excited)
7. We were given tutus - we loved dressing up. (make sth different than it really is)

8. I turned the lights off. (to stop sth)
9. I tried out the torch. (to test sth)

10. We lost touch when I left home to go to London. (fail to keep in contact)
11. I ended up settling down back in the area. (to finish at a certain place; to begin to live a stable life)

12. By chance, a flyer came through the door. (without planning)
13. I thought I'd give a go.

14. It was a bit odd, but it didn't put me off. (to make sb feel uneasy)
15. My first date didn't work out. (solve a problem)

16. As we talked things started to fall into place. (to fit together)
17. My heart leapt into my mouth. (extrememly nervous)

18. He was the one I'd had a crush on at christmas.
19. I was worried that he'd take one look at me and run a mile. (examine sb. briefly; do anything to avoid sth)

20. We got married. (become married)
21. I intend to keep up all the traditions. (continue)

22. As far as I was concerned, ... (to the extent)
23. Being back at the house where I grew up, brought back lots of memories. (cause to remember sth)

24. People would come round for dinner.
25. We were made to feel at home. (to feel accepted)

26. It made me think about where I'd come from. (to be a native of a place)
27. I tried to track down my birth mother. (to search for sb)

28. It must have been awful to give her own child away. (give sth to sb)
29. I'm not normally one for looking back as I tend to live in the present. (to think of what has happened in the past)

30. She kept quiet about it. (remain silent)
31. No one was any the wiser. (no one will notice sth bad that sb has done)

32. I always got to be the fairy elf. (have a chance or ba able to be)
33. We were ahead of the times. (to have ideas or attitudes that are more advanced than those of others)

34. I had a better life thanks to being adopted. (owing to)

**Tdol** · #2 23-Nov-2006, 03:59

The following could be regarded as phrasal verbs:
5/7/8/9/11/14/15/21/23/24/26/27/28/29/34

However, phrasal verbs are also idiomatic by definition, so they have a foot in each category.

susumuya · #3 24-Nov-2006, 11:00

So, for those you have listed, are that they are both idioms and phrasal verbs? For the others, they can only be grouped as idioms?

For 5/13/18, what are their meanings? I could not find the meanings in online dictionary...

Thanks!!!!!!!

**Tdol** · #4 25-Nov-2006, 08:20

5 visiting socially
13 try something to see if it achieves what you want, but without any great hope or expectation of success
18 feel attracted to someone sexually/romatically, often when the feeling is not reciprocated, or when impossible (have a crush on a film star)

I think the main trouble is that 'idiom' is not a hard and fast category in the way that grammatical categories are, though even then there is debate.

Phrasal verbs
They are definitely idiomatic- it would be difficult or impossible to work out their meanings from the definitions of the individual words. However, when people talk of idioms, they tend to think of things like 'white elephant' and 'fit as fiddle'- the colourful expressions and phraes we use, rather than 'put up with' and 'rub out'.
Therefore, I think most people would call them idiomatic rather than idioms.

susumuya · #5 25-Nov-2006, 20:19

THANKS!!! It is really a very good explanation! I think I finally got some ideas now!

But I would like to ask one more question. In the expression 'lost touch', 'lost' is an adjective and 'touch' is a noun? Could I make a link between 'lost touch' and 'without contact'? Because I am trying to explain that with Idiomaticity Combinations Expression introduced by Numberg, sag & Wasow. So, I am trying to use this expression to explain... ><

But I have some difficulty in finding one word to represent 'lost'...

Thanks!!!!!!!!!

boothling · #6 25-Nov-2006, 20:44

"Lost" in this case is a verb: the past simple of "to lose".

**RonBee** · #7 25-Nov-2006, 21:20

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