Let’s take a walk on the clouds. Walking on the clouds seems like a stupid thing to do, isn’t it? But what if I tell you that this is common and a great experience to have in life? It really is possible, although figuratively. Walking on clouds is an idiom that means that a person is extremely excited or happy about something. Idioms are phrases that are metaphorical in nature. They usually have words that are figurative to something else. Walking on clouds is one such idiom that does not mean a person is taking a walk high up on the clouds but that they are extremely happy about something.
There are many such idioms, and most of them may seem really similar but they might have totally different meanings altogether.
How are idioms useful?
Idioms are phrases whose meanings cannot be deduced by individual words. Taken together as a phrase, they have a totally different meaning than the meaning that the words have. They are generally used by people native to the language but that is not always so. There are idioms in almost every language.
The usage of these idioms is pretty common if you are a native speaker, you will see a lot of people using idioms, maybe without realizing that they are idioms. This is because you get habituated to the language and it is easier for you to use it. If you are not a native speaker, using idioms might be a conscious effort that you take to include them in your speaking.
There are a whole lot of idioms in English and the meanings of each can be quite confusing. What if I were to tell you that there are more than three idioms with a reference to clouds? For example, “Walking on clouds” means extreme happiness, “head in the clouds” refers to a detachment from reality, and “on cloud 9” again refers to someone being extremely happy about something.
There are so many more idioms with the word rain and not all of them have similar meanings. For example ‘it’s raining cats and dogs’ means heavy rain; ‘when it rains, it pours’ is an idiom to give hope; ‘right as rain’ means to be perfectly fine and healthy; ‘taking a rain check’ is to politely decline an offer. There are so many more such idioms using rain in them. But enough about the rain! Let us take a walk on the clouds and keep ourselves dry.
Walking on clouds
The term ‘walking on clouds’ is used about someone when that person seems extremely excited or happy about something that has happened or is expected to happen. This makes sense when you think about how light you would feel had you been on top of clouds and frolicking about there. You can make use of this idiom in your daily speech and idioms present you to the other person as someone who has a good command over the language.
Using the idiom in sentences
You can make use of this idiom a lot. For example, you can use it in a sentence like
Ever since the results of the exam came in, she has been walking on the clouds.
This would mean that the person is really happy with the results of the examination. You can change the verb form of the phrase to denote the tense that you require. This example sentence is in the Present Perfect Continuous tense. We will now look at the same idiom in sentences of different tenses.
Simple present tense: I walk on the clouds often because I can find happiness in a lot of things.
Present continuous tense: She is walking on the clouds because of the recent breakthrough.
Present perfect tense: He has walked on the clouds in the past.
Present perfect continuous tense: Ever since the results of the exam came in, I have been walking on the clouds.
Simple past tense: I walked on the clouds when I was happy.
Past continuous tense: I was walking on the clouds yesterday because of my happiness.
Past perfect tense: I had walked on the clouds a few weeks earlier but that faded away slowly.
Past perfect continuous tense: I had been walking on the clouds for months together because my brother was getting closer to his dream.
Simple future tense: I will walk on the clouds when the test results come out.
Future continuous tense: I will be walking on the clouds this time tomorrow, owing to my first salary that’s due tomorrow.
Future perfect tense: I will have walked on the clouds because of my award.
Future perfect continuous tense: I will have been walking on the clouds as my happiness fades away in a few months.
Conclusion
Any idiom can be made use of by anyone irrespective of their native language. It is not very difficult to include idioms in your everyday speech, but at the first, it might require some constant effort. You might want to start off by recognizing idioms in other people’s speeches and texts. Try to learn one idiom per day and include it in your speaking as well. This way, you will eventually get used to idioms in your language every day and your command over the language will improve. You have learned one idiom today in this article and the various ways of usage of it. Try to inculcate this in your speech now!
FAQs
- When did idioms originate?
Idioms had existed in language for quite a while but they were termed in the late 16th century after the French word idiome.
- What does walking on the clouds mean?
It means to be extremely happy or excited about something.
- Why do we use idioms?
Idioms are an enhancement of the language and they are more creative and interesting to use. It can be more complex and intriguing to use “It cost me an arm and a leg” to say that something was really expensive than saying “It was costly.”
