Essential Vocabulary: Clothing, Fashion, and Animal Idioms

Essential Vocabulary: Clothing and Fashion

• Summer wardrobe
• Finest silk cloth (tela)
• Garment (prenda)
• Their clothes were soaked
• Items of clothing (ropa)
• Sports kit
• Leisure wear
• Evening, formal dress/attire
• New outfit for the party

Style and Design

• Style
• Designer label (etiqueta)
• Classic design
• Brand loyalty
• Bearing their logo
• Recognizable pattern

Adjusting Clothes

• Let out: Make clothes larger
• Take in: Make clothes smaller
• Let down: Make clothes longer
• Take up: Make clothes shorter

Changing Clothes

• Dress up: Wear smart clothes
• Dress down: Wear casual clothes
• Change into: Replace one set of clothes with another
• Change out of: Replace one set of clothes with another
• Wrap up: Put on warm clothes
• Slip on: Put on clothes quickly and easily
• Slip off: Take off clothes quickly and easily
• Do/zip up: Fasten clothes
• Grow out of: Become too big for some clothes
• Grow into: Become big enough for some clothes

Fashion Trends

• A new fashion comes in
• The height of fashion
• To come in and out of style
• To catch on
• To come back
• Fashion statement
• Fashion victim

Animal Idioms and Expressions

Exercise 2: Animal Sounds

• "Get out of my way," growled the man.
• The company is proudly trumpeting...
• The audience hissed/whistled/roared...
• The rubber soles of my shoes squeak on the shiny floor.
• "Help," she croaked, her throat dry with fear.
• Fans yelled and whistled.
• Roared with laughter
• Hungry: Stomach rumbled

Exercise 3: Animal Idioms

1. To smell a rat: To suspect that something is wrong
2. To let the cat out of the bag: To reveal a secret
3. To hear something straight from the horse's mouth: To hear something from the original source
4. To talk the hind leg off a donkey: To talk for a long time in an annoying way
5. To rabbit on about something: To speak at length about unimportant things
6. Wouldn't say boo to a goose: Used to describe someone who is very shy or quiet
7. To say something parrot fashion: To repeat something without understanding its meaning

Verbs for Reporting

• Confess: Admit, deny, regret
• Advise: Insist, request, recommend
• Suggest, object, announce, remind, apologize, advise, explain, blame

Comparative and Superlative Phrases

Easily the safest, far/considerably safer, nowhere near as safe, nothing like as safe, by far the best, just about the safest, one of the safest, somewhat/slightly less safe, not nearly as safe as, a great deal safer, much the same as