Do you readers know what A GUT REACTION means?

HAVE YOU EVER had been through that situation in which you see or read (or even hear) a sentence that you can understand every single word of it, but you cannot understand the whole meaning of what was said? If so, relax, this is supposed to be a normal situation, even though you may feel demotivated at some point. When some words are put together and used figuratively it can be really difficult to work out their meanings. I am talking here about idioms.

The situation described above happen quite often among the English language learners. One of the main reasons for the students to find idioms difficult to understand is due to the nature of the so-called idioms. Moreover, the imaginary situation involved in the idioms may demand more from the language user.

Some idioms have historical and cultural contexts, sound patterns, stories, popular culture, literature and so on and so forth. It is very important to know more than just words and grammar to understand idioms and slang.

For the next months, I will be writing about idioms in the English language in my next entries for this site. In order to do so, I will divide the idioms – with their definitions, examples and the like – into some categories.

Do you readers know what A GUT REACTION means?

A GUT REACTION is an immediate and instinctive response. That is a reaction that one has immediately and strong, without thinking towards something; instinct, intuition.  

EXAMPLE:

·        Her immediate gut reaction was to never write again.

·        I think she will go with her gut reaction.

·        My initial gut reaction was that the merger would result in a drop in stock prices, but the opposite turned out to be true.

·     “I usually follow my gut reaction, because it’s usually right. I don’t think about stuff too much. I just follow my instinct.”

·    Your gut reaction may be that this sounds terrifying or perverse. (Times, Sunday Times, 2012)

·      When cops go round to speak to people they often get a gut reaction, particularly detectives. (The Sun, 2012)

·       'I don't like decisions at the best of times and this is constant decision-making, so it's just having to go with that gut reaction. (The Sun, 2014)

·       Keanu Reeves once said: “I have a gut reaction to the material that I’m dealing with and if there’s something, like, Something’s Gotta Give, when I read this script, I was like, ‘This is one of the best scripts that I’ve ever read, period.’”

Bruno Coriolano de Almeida Costa é professor universitário, com 17 anos de experiência; graduado em Língua Inglesa; especialista em Ensino de Língua Inglesa (Lato sensu); tem certificação TEFL/TESOL e é mestre e doutorando em inglês pelo Programa de Pós-Graduação em Inglês: Estudos Linguísticos e Literários, da UFSC, Florianópolis.

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