TO WORK ON

Read the following dialogue and guess the meaning of the idiom in bold:

Susan: “Hi,Sofia! How was your trip to Italy?”

Sofia: “It was really nice! I was there for 20 days!”

Susan: “Did Alfonso go with you?”

Sofia: “Yes, he did! If he weren’t there, I don’t know what I would have done…”

Susan: “Why?”

Sofia: “He is fluent in Italian.”

Susan: “Didn’t you study Italian for a long time?”

Sofia: “Yes, I did. Unfortunately, I don’t practice it as much and it is really hard for me to communicate now. I really have to work on my Italian…”

Susan: “You should! Alfonso seems to really like you and if things work out well, you might be marrying and Italian!”

Sofia: ” No!! We are just friends!”

Susan: “that’s not what he told me…”

What do you think TO WORK ON means?

a. To stop doing something

b. To improve on something

c. To teach something

d. All of the above

The answer is B.

MEANING: To work on something means to improve, to become better at something!

This idiom was taken from our book SPEAKING TRANSITIONS!