Hi everyone, ‘9 Idioms about’ series is back! I hope you find today’s post handy as usual.

I hate sounding like a broken record, but it is crucial to reiterate some points you need to know when using idioms:

1. Only use idioms if you understand their meaning and know when and how they should be applied in context.
2. Don’t overuse idioms. While idiomatic language can boost your score, this does not mean that you should use them in every single sentence. If you overuse idioms you are going to sound very unnatural, and you could also lose coherence because you are focusing more on idioms than actually answering the question. This is not to mention that your fluency will suffer if you keep thinking about idioms too much. Make your life easier by using idioms when it is natural to do so.
3. Most of idioms are informal and should therefore be used in spoken language only. In other words, avoid using them in academic or formal writing.