Off the Record

Teaching Resource/material. Classroom. Notes. Subject : English Language Learning Methode : Noticing Nota Bene K12 "special feature, special phrasing, a peculiarity". a phrase or a fixed expression that has a figurative, or sometimes literal, meaning. Categorized as formulaic language. Expressions such as these have figurative meaning. When one says "The devil is in the details", one is not expressing a belief in demons, but rather one means that things may look good on the surface, but upon scrutiny, undesirable aspects are revealed. Similarly, when one says "The early bird gets the worm", one is not suggesting that there is only one opportunity; rather one means there are plenty of opportunities, but for the sake of the idiom one plays along, and imagines that there is only one. Alternatively, the figurative translation of this phrase is that the most attentive and astute individual, or perhaps the hardest working or most opportunistic receives the most desirable opportunity.