A GREAT WAY to practice a language at home is to repeat simple phrases or idioms with your family around the table and have some fun!

Most languages have a variety of colourful idioms – typical phrases that might not mean much if taken too literally. And Australian English is certainly no exception.

“It’s a frog strangling gully washer” might be one of the ways that some expressive Australians talk about a heavy downpour.

In celebration of the recent storms, we thought we would share some wet and wild expressions in some of the other languages we teach:

French: “Il fait un froid de canard” – It’s freezing! Thought to come from hunting – as the hunter has to stand very still to let the duck come within range and in winter time would get chilled by the cold.

“Il pleut des grenouilles” – It’s raining frogs