Episode 36 - Idioms: ABC's of Friendship

I’m pretty sure any of us here whether a native speaker or English language learners have learnt the English alphabet. We have a variety of songs to teach ABC to children in general and adults in some cases. In order for learners to memorize the pronunciation of these letters, we, educators associate them with things around us. For example A is for apple, juicy and sweet; B is for books with new things to learn, it’s neat. These lyrics were written and the song was composed by Golden Books for nursery kids. Today we are learning how to make ABC of friendship. If you have a close friend or even a best friend and his/ her birthday is coming up, why not make something original to express your feelings? Anyway, we don’t need a special occasion to show how grateful we are to our friends or how wonderful they are. Why don’t you drop them a line or “26 lines” to let them know? I believe everyone can be creative if they are guided enough. Even if you are not a poet at birth, it’s the thought that counts. Do your best, and who knows, you may even be a poet and not even know it.

How many letters are there in the English alphabet? I’m sure you will say 26. This is how you are going to do it. You write 26 letters down on a sheet of paper, double spaced. You need to think of any verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs or prepositions that start with the letter intended. Let’s take G for instance.
An adjective that starts with G is good.
A noun that begins with G is gift
Give is a verb that commences with G.

Then you have to make a sentence using the above words to talk about your friend, his/ her appearance, attitude, memories between you, your friendship, how lucky you are to have him/ her as a friend. A typical sentence will go like this

G is for gift. You are a gift from God.

G stands for give and take. You have given me more than taken from me.

G represents good. You’re too good to be true.

Then you repeat the process for the rest of the letters.

Our examples:
the answer to one’s prayers
look on the bright side
as cool as a cucumber
down to earth
open one’s eyes
fair-weather friend
have a heart of gold
A trouble shared is a trouble halved
have one’s best interest at heart
take a joke
one of a kind
laugh at
make one’s day
call sb names
one in a million
pull my leg
beyond question
read me like a book
a shoulder to cry on
take the heat
get under my skin
in vain
wish someone well
of the year
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