385,394 lessons
Become tutor
LiveXPQuestionsEnglishIs there a difference between idioms and street slang? And collocations and phrasal verbs?

Is there a difference between idioms and street slang? And collocations and phrasal verbs?

Miss Erin HardyMiss Erin Hardy
Know the answer?

4 answers from our tutors

  • Jamari Andrews
    Jamari AndrewsCountry flag: us
    I am a certified bi-lingual TEFL English teacher! Let me show you the keys to confidence & fluency!

    yes there is a big difference hahaha. street slang is used a bit more often depending on the place

  • Dominic Brant
    Dominic BrantCountry flag: gb
    Fun, focussed and relevant. Business. Academic. Creative.

    Apples and pears - Cockney (East London) rhyming slang for 'stairs'. Mutton Jeff - Dear. They could be both slang and idioms depends how you look at it. A lot of street slang is more to do with renaming things: Feds - Police (from Federal Law Enforcement, from the US). It forms a code that means people can operate in secret. Street English in the UK changes from area to area, and will have no obvious connection to 'proper English'. Neither will dialects - which as kind of mini-English languages from around the country. Did you know there were areas on the East Cost of the UK that shared the same dialects as the West Coast of Europe. Fishermen (and they were men) would travel, and sometimes base themselves in a foreigh ports. Then language would blend.

  • Check your English level for free

    Take our quick and free test to find out your current level of English

    Start testflagbubblecheckman
  • Kainat
    KainatCountry flag: pk
    B.S English (Applied linguistic) TEFL certified 🏅

    Idioms are like saying something that doesn't mean exactly what the words suggest, kind of like "raining cats and dogs." Street slang is more like cool, informal language you might hear in specific social scenes. Collocations are words that just go together naturally, like "salt and pepper," and phrasal verbs are those combos of a verb and extra words, like "show up" or "hang out." They're all just different ways words team up!

  • Ayda Fahrii
    Ayda FahriiCountry flag: ir
    Certified TEFL, Teacher Educator, Supervisor, General and Business English, 18 years of Experience

    Yes, idioms are words and phrases that do not literally mean what they express and if you translate them in your own language, they might even be meaningless. Idioms are used and understood by many people. Slangs, used by relatively limited groups of people and are very informal.

Other student questions

Show all