23 мая 2009 г.

It’s the first step that hurts. Let’s begin!

Предлагаю небольшую подборку идиомов на тему “начать/начинать” с объяснениями на английском, а также примерами.

hit the ground running
MEANING: to begin a task with a lot of energy and enthusiasm
e.g. John has hit the ground running on that psychology project. He’s already found funding for it!

get off on the wrong foot
MEANING: to begin badly
e.g. After we moved in we had an argument over the bathroom. We really got off on the wrong foot.

start the ball rolling
MEANING: to start something happening
e.g. When looking for a new job I started the ball rolling by calling my old friends.

from the word “go”
MEANING: from the very beginning
e.g. She knew from the word go they would never be friends.

from scratch
MEANING: to start again from the very beginning without anything used previously
e.g. Starting a new family from scratch was not for him.

wipe the slate clean
MEANING: to give somebody another chance without paying attention to past misdoings
e.g. Once the children were punished, the slate was wiped clean.

Если у вас есть в запасе другие меткие выражение на эту же тему, не поскупитесь поделиться в комментариях.

Еще:
Из моей коллекции метких выражений
Пограничные выражения
В здоровом теле – здоровый дух!

14 комментариев:

  1. start afresh/make a fresh start/make a new start

    If you say that you are going to turn over a new leaf, you mean that you are going to start to behave in a better or more acceptable way. He realized he was in the wrong and promised to turn over a new leaf.

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  2. to turn over a new leaf = to wipe the slate clean - начать новую жизнь :)

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  3. As far as I know "start from scratch" is similar to "go (be) back to square one (start from square one)" и "go back to the drawing board" - от печки (начинать делать).

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  4. Как-то попалось выражение to make smth from scratch, но не совсем разобрался со значением.

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  5. Есть выражение to keep the ball rolling. Насколько оно отличается от to start the ball rolling?

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  6. moreover, I've heard "set the ball rolling“ used several times.

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  7. Jump the gun - to do something prematurely; to start something early, before all the preparations have been made (начать что-либо до положенного времени): You bought your son a football and he's only six weeks old. Don't you think you're jumping the gun a little?

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  8. The expression "jump the gun" probably originates from foot racing in which an overly anxious runner would accidentally begin the race before the starting gun was fired.

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  9. To jump the gun - Поперед батьки в пекло лезть :-D

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  10. get down to smth/doing smth (informal) - to finally start doing smth, after you have been avoiding doing it or after smth has prevented you from doing it: Come on Bill - it's time you got down to some homework. Once the summer's here we must get down to painting the outside of the house.

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  11. Early start makes easy stages. (a proverb)

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  12. get off the ground - приступить к выполнению чего-то

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  13. to clean the slate/to wipe off the slate - сбросить груз старых ошибок, заблуждений; избавиться от всех старых обязательств

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  14. GET THE SHOW ON THE ROAD - get started; Example: I can't wait any longer. If we don't get the show on the road, I'm going to have to schedule this meeting for another day. (Synonym: get down to business)

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