14.5 Idioms, Phrasal Verbs, Spelling & Odd Sentence Out
Key Takeaways
- An idiom's meaning cannot be worked out word by word; 'at the eleventh hour' means at the last possible moment.
- In phrasal verbs the particle changes the meaning: 'write off' means cancel a debt as unrecoverable, while 'write up' means prepare a report.
- Misspellings in exam options usually hide in doubled letters (accommodate, committee), vowel pairs (receive) or word endings (maintenance).
- In odd-sentence-out questions, the sentence that introduces an unrelated subject without any linking word or pronoun is usually the one that does not belong.
- 'In the red' means losing money or being in debt, while 'in the black' means making a profit.
14.5 Idioms, Phrasal Verbs, Spelling & Odd Sentence Out
Exam Focus: Idioms and phrasal verbs appear in meaning questions, fillers and phrase replacement; spelling appears as "find the misspelt word" items; and odd-sentence-out or coherence items test paragraph logic in Mains. All are fast to answer once the patterns are familiar.
1. Idioms and Phrases
An idiom's meaning cannot be worked out word by word, so learn idioms with an example sentence.
| Idiom | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| A blessing in disguise | a misfortune that turns out well | Losing the contract was a blessing in disguise. |
| At the eleventh hour | at the last possible moment | The borrower paid at the eleventh hour. |
| Break even | earn just enough to cover costs | The new branch should break even this year. |
| In the red | losing money or in debt | The unit has been in the red for two quarters. |
| In the black | making a profit | The company is back in the black. |
| The lion's share | the largest part | Retail loans took the lion's share of growth. |
| A drop in the ocean | a tiny amount compared with what is needed | The grant is a drop in the ocean. |
| Cut corners | do something poorly to save time or money | Never cut corners on KYC checks. |
| Red tape | excessive official rules and paperwork | Reforms aim to reduce red tape. |
| Keep one's head above water | just manage to survive, especially financially | Small traders struggled to keep their heads above water. |
| Bite the bullet | face something unpleasant bravely | The board bit the bullet and wrote off the loan. |
| By and large | on the whole | By and large, the audit was satisfactory. |
| Hit the nail on the head | describe a problem exactly | The report hit the nail on the head. |
| Burn the midnight oil | work late into the night | Aspirants burn the midnight oil before Mains. |
2. Phrasal Verbs
| Phrasal verb | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Carry out | perform or complete | The team carried out an inspection. |
| Bring about | cause to happen | The reform brought about faster settlement. |
| Look into | investigate | The bank will look into the complaint. |
| Set up | establish | The firm set up a new branch. |
| Call off | cancel | The strike was called off. |
| Put off | postpone | The meeting was put off to Monday. |
| Turn down | reject | The loan application was turned down. |
| Pay off | repay fully; also, succeed | She paid off the loan early. |
| Write off | cancel a debt as unrecoverable | The bank wrote off the bad loan. |
| Wind up | close down a business, or conclude | The company was wound up. |
| Fall back on | rely on when other options fail | Savings give you something to fall back on. |
| Run out of | use up the supply of | The ATM ran out of cash. |
| Make up for | compensate for | Extra hours made up for the delay. |
| Break down | stop working, or divide into parts | The server broke down during peak hours. |
[!WARNING] Particle traps: Changing the particle changes the meaning. Put off (postpone) is not put out (extinguish or inconvenience); call off (cancel) is not call on (visit or request); write off (cancel a debt) is not write up (prepare a report).
3. Spelling
High-Risk Words
accommodate, commission, committee, guarantee, receive, separate, occurrence, necessary, maintenance, entrepreneur, correspondence, privilege, recommend, surveillance, liaison, questionnaire.
Useful Rules
| Rule | Examples | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| i before e, except after c, for the "ee" sound | believe, receive, ceiling | seize, weird |
| Double the final consonant when the last syllable is stressed, before -ed or -ing | occur → occurred, commit → committed | offer → offered (stress on the first syllable) |
| Drop a silent e before a suffix starting with a vowel | manage → managing | manageable keeps the e to keep the soft g |
| Keep -ce or -ge before -able | noticeable, changeable | — |
Exam Method
Read each option slowly, syllable by syllable. Misspellings usually hide in doubled letters (accomodate), vowel pairs (recieve) or endings (maintainance).
4. Odd Sentence Out and Paragraph Coherence
A set of four or five sentences forms a paragraph, except for one sentence that does not belong.
Method
- Find the theme shared by most sentences.
- Track the links: pronouns (it, these), connectors (however, as a result) and repeated key nouns.
- Flag the outsider: it usually introduces a new subject, shifts the time frame, or has no link to any other sentence.
Worked Example
- Digital payments have grown rapidly in rural India over the past few years.
- Low-cost smartphones and cheaper data have made mobile banking accessible to first-time users.
- The monsoon brought above-normal rainfall to several eastern states this year.
- As a result, many village shops now accept QR-code payments.
- Banks are also training business correspondents to help new users transact safely.
Sentences 1, 2, 4 and 5 discuss the spread of digital payments, and "As a result" in sentence 4 links back to sentence 2. Sentence 3 introduces rainfall with no link to the others, so sentence 3 is the odd one out.
Common Traps
- Translating idioms literally ("in the red" has nothing to do with the colour itself).
- Ignoring the particle in a phrasal verb.
- Choosing a sentence that is merely different in style rather than off-topic as the odd sentence.
Choose the meaning of the idiom in bold: The recovery team secured the settlement at the eleventh hour.
After every recovery attempt failed, the bank decided to ______ the unrecoverable loan.
Select the correctly spelt word.