N2 · 40 words

Set phrases, idioms and proverbs

Fixed expressions that a grown-up speaker reaches for.

Fixed expressions are where a speaker sounds either natural or bookish, and this list mixes three kinds. Four-character compounds, 四字熟語(よじじゅくご), such as 一石二鳥(いっせきにちょう), look written but are used in speech too. Body-part idioms say something about people through a hand, a nose or a bone: 骨(ほね)が折(お)れる means only that something is hard work. And a few proverbs are quoted, often with と言(い)う or とはこのことだ after them.

The words

Adverb (2)

相変わらずas ever; as usualAdverbN2

彼(かれ)は相変(あいか)わらず忙(いそが)しそうだ。He seems as busy as ever.

As a reply to "how are you": 相変(あいか)わらずです, much the same as ever.

案の定just as expected; sure enoughAdverbN2

傘(かさ)を持(も)たずに出(で)かけたら、案(あん)の定(じょう)雨(あめ)に降(ふ)られた。I went out without an umbrella and, sure enough, got caught in the rain.

Usually for a bad outcome someone saw coming.

This list belongs to How Japanese builds its words — seven lists and 282 words that can also be practised as a whole.

Practise this list

Multiple choice and gaps, drawn from exactly these 40 words. Whatever you get wrong comes back tomorrow.