English Vocabulary to Talk about Relationships, and Ideas

As an English teacher, I always want to help my students and clients understand the English language on a deeper level than English text books can offer. Therefore, today I will teach you how certain metaphors build a common thread throughout the English vocabulary and expressions used for different vocabulary areas in English covering topics such as the language used to talk about relationships, and ideas.

In English, relationships can be perceived as journeys:

a) “This relationship is a dead-end street.”(= the relationship is not going anywhere)

b) When one person wants to tell the other person that they think it would be good to get separated, they might say: “We’ll just have to go our separate ways.”

Ideas can be seen as food:

a) A native English speaker might call a plan half-baked. (= not well thought out)

b) They might say: “Let me chew it over for a while” (= let me think about it for a while)

c) During a meeting someone might say: “Just some food for thought.” (= just something to think about.)