{"id":148015,"date":"2015-03-04T23:33:46","date_gmt":"2015-03-05T04:33:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/learn\/modern-english-expressions\/"},"modified":"2025-02-28T14:35:12","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T19:35:12","slug":"modern-english-expressions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/english\/modern-english-expressions\/","title":{"rendered":"36 Modern English Expressions And How To Learn More"},"content":{"rendered":"

The English you hear on the streets<\/a> (which is the English you want to speak) is different from textbook English<\/a>.\u00a0I’m the mother of an 11-year-old, so I get to hear a lot of modern expressions and words. I also keep up to date on my own generation’s modern English. Here are some key modern terms, and how you can learn more on your own.<\/p>\n

[fluentu-toc skip=3]<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What Is Modern English?<\/h2>\n

Last week, I was reading the classic novel “A Little Princess.” It was written in 1905. The language of the book is English, but the English doesn’t sound the same as my usual English.<\/p>\n

The narration and dialogue were filled with words and phrases I had never used or put together. It was weird!<\/p>\n

For example, look at this line of description from the story:<\/p>\n

\u201cPresently, she lifted her face and shook back her black locks, with a queer little smile.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

None of the words are hard, but they aren’t written in a way that would sound natural to any modern reader:<\/p>\n