Grammar Wisdom is a free library of guides to the parts of English that textbooks tend to rush past — idioms, similes, metaphors, and the everyday phrases people repeat until they stop saying anything. Each guide takes one subject and treats it properly: what the phrases mean, how they sound in a real sentence, where learners usually go wrong, and practice to check that it has stuck.
- 882guides
- 5topic libraries
- 95,000+worked examples
- 13,000+practice questions
What you’ll find here
The library is organised by the kind of language you are looking for, and then by subject — love, time, work, weather, and hundreds more.
Who it’s for
English learners
Idioms and set phrases are where fluent English stops being literal. The guides explain the meaning plainly and show each phrase in a full sentence, so you can hear how it is actually used.
Writers
When a sentence needs a fresher comparison or a better word than the first one that came to mind, the simile, metaphor and word-choice guides give you options — and notes on tone, so you pick one that fits.
Teachers
Nearly every guide ends with practice exercises and an FAQ, which makes it a ready starting point for a lesson on figurative language or on choosing the right phrase for the right setting.
How a guide is put together
Guides follow the same path, so you always know where to look:
- Meaning first. Each guide opens by explaining what the phrase or figure of speech is, in plain English.
- Examples in context. Phrases appear in complete sentences, each with a note on what it means or when to use it.
- Mistakes named. Common errors are shown beside the correct version, with the reason one works and the other does not.
- Practice with answers. Exercises let you test yourself; the answers stay hidden until you choose to see them.
Corrections and updates
Language guides should be right, and when one is not, we want to know. Every guide shows the date it was last updated. If you find a mistake, an unclear explanation, or an example that does not sound natural, please tell us — reader reports are read, checked and used to correct the guide.
Questions, corrections or topic ideas?
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