There is a piece of vocabulary that rarely gets taught in English textbooks yet is so common you will have almost certainly encountered one already.
I'm talking about word pairs, or binomials. Two words connected by a preposition that act in a similar way to idiom although their meaning is usually a lot easier to work out.
If you can master them, they will help make your English sound more natural.
Consider the following sentences:
We've had some good and bad times here
We've had a few ups and downs here.
Which one sounds more natural? Ups and downs is a way of describing good and bad experiences in a quick, idiomatic way.
There are hundreds of word pairs in English but here are 5 of the most common.
1) love you and leave you
I need to love you and leave you.
We say this to good friends or family as a way to say goodbye.
2) heart and soul
I've put my heart and soul into this business
We say this to describe a lot of emotional effort
3) swings and roundabouts
I lost a lot on that deal but gained a lot on the other one so, swings and roundabouts
We say this to mean somethings work out but others don't
4) trial and error
I have learnt mainly through trial and error.
We say this to describe a situation where we learnt by trying things and making mistakes.
5) neck and neck
The race was neck and neck until the very end.
We use this to describe a situation where the race is very even
