Why Do We Say That? 404 Idioms, Phrases, Sayings & Facts! An American Idiom Dictionary To Become A Native Speaker By Learning Colloquial Expressions, Proverbs & Slang Paperback – December 3, 2023

This book EXPLAINS the quotes and idioms, unlike others that just list them. Buy this one first and you won't be disappointed.

Very interesting and easy to read. I’m always curious about the history of common phrases, and this book addresses them! I really enjoy all the works produced by Scott Matthews.

For the most part, I really enjoyed this book! It was interesting to see where these phrases came from. Oftentimes, we use these expressions without any thought as to who/where/when they originally came from. Many of our idioms go way back into history and are products of the bible, works from famous writers (such as Shakespear), or teachings of philosophers (such as Socrates).I was appreciative of the “Did You Know?” pages that bracketed every 10 idioms. These interesting facts offered a nice break between the laundry list of hundreds of phrases. I learned some interesting facts (some of which are disturbing)! For example, I was disappointed to learn that a cockroach can live for several weeks without its head and that on average, humans spend six months of life waiting for red lights to turn green. Made me want to trade in my vehicle immediately. On the flip side, there are some absolutely fascinating (non-disturbing) facts - did you know that there is a particular type of jellyfish that can live forever? I didn’t! While the pages dedicated to facts were great, some are random and do not follow a theme.As is customary of Scott Matthews’s books, the artwork is great! Each idiom comes with a nicely crafted graphic to illustrate the idiom.I think that this book is excellent for nonnative English speakers because each idiom is defined in meaning and educates the reader as to whether or not the idiom should be used in a positive or negative way. Some are used with sarcasm and that is important to know before using the phrases in conversation.For me, the history of each idiom varied in level of intrigue. I found some to be incredibly fascinating and educational. I’ve always been curious to know where “shotgun wedding” and “taste of your own medicine” came from. Both have a fascinating origin story! In reading this book, I discovered that I had been using the term “busybody” incorrectly, so I am glad to have read through that description!On the flip side, some had very little relevance to my day-to-day life as I had never heard of the saying. Since I had never been exposed to several of the expressions listed in this book, I was not incredibly invested in what they meant or where they came from. In some cases, I wished that there was an example in which the idiom was used in a sentence so that I could feel confident incorporating it into my vocabulary if the opportunity presented itself. In addition, some idioms are extremely self-explanatory and did not require much of an explanation or deep dive into historical origins. Lastly, there are some idioms that speculate on theories as to the origin, but in truth, this information is unknown.Because this book reads like a dictionary of idioms, it would have been nice if the idioms were organized alphabetically or organized by theme. As I was reading this book, I found myself wondering about idioms that I hear regularly and my curiosity made me want to look it up in the book but since it is not organized in either way, the only way I could do that is by scanning the table of contents and sifting through 404 idioms to try to find what I was looking for. It was just easier to read the book cover to cover and wait until I stumbled upon the idiom that I was curious about.

These books are always fun for trivia nuts.

Not really true to what info said.

The reading material that Scott provides is a great replacement of readers digest which I have been with for 35 years.Thank you Scott and your team.

This was such an interesting and entertaining read! I had no idea how many of our everyday colloquial expressions dated back to the 19th century. I found the origin stories to be fascinating and I enjoyed expanding my knowledge on these phrases. Some origin stories shocked me and made me more aware of the history in how the phrase came into existence.I recommend this book to all who would like to educate themselves on the English language. You are guaranteed to learn a lot!Great facts sprinkled in throughout the book create excellent topics of conversation for your next social event!

Scott Matthews has done it again. If you like idioms, and enjoy finding out the back story behind them, you will be delighted reading this book. Lots of great language history in the book, and many references to Shakespeare, Aesop, and the Bible. Well done, Scott. I really enjoyed the graphics, too!