english idioms

English Idioms, Proverbs and Sayings Since language is taken as the reflection of culture, the examination of it and the culture-bound terms have always been considered of the most important parts of it. English idioms, proverbs and sayings, they are significant but hard to understand. However, their proper use in a language is often a mark of a persons command of the language. Why are they so important and difficult? The following passage will study all of them. First, an idiom is a phrase or a fixed expression that has a figurative, or sometimes literal, meaning. Categorized as formulaic language, an idioms figurative meaning is different from the literal meaning. It is estimated that there are at least twenty-five thousand idiomatic expressions in the English language. English is abound with idioms so that language becomes more various and concise. However, just so it confuses a lot. So, first of all, a student should learn not to look down on such idioms just because theyre made up of such simple and easy words. He should look out for identical phrases with different meanings and look them up in a dictionary if hes not sure. Hes bound to run into a lot of trouble when he first uses them, but he shouldnt give in, much less give up. If he keeps trying and keeps at it long enough hell make out and things will turn out well in the end. Above that there are many verb phrases like look down, make up of, look out for, lookup, run into, look up, make out, give in, give up, keep at, turn out. Besides the verb phrases mentioned above, there are other idioms such as: first of all, much less, in the end etc. All of these idioms make the whole paragraph cohesive various and concise. But even the same words may have different meanings ,as in the example above ,or in such a phrase as set off, it has a different meaning in each of the following situations: To set off in the direction of. To set off on something. To set off a chain reactions. Second, we talk about proverbs and sayings. Proverbs are short sayings of folk wisdomof well-known facts or truthsexpressed succinctly and in a way that makes them easy to remember. Because the sayings are so pithy, they have universal appeal. Proverbs may provide interesting little glimpses or clues to a peoples geography, history, social organization. So, in spite of the different culture backgrounds of Chinese and English, there are still a great number of proverbs or sayings are equivalent or close approximates. Consider the following: Ill news travels fast. 恶事传千里 Practice makes perfect. 熟能生巧 East and west, home is best. 出门一里，不如家里 All is fish that comes to the net. 拉入篮里就是菜 Everything comes to him who waits. 皇天不负有心人 Like begets like. 龙生龙，凤生凤 Care kills a cat. 好奇害死猫 From these we can see that proverbs are terse and succinct, vivid and forceful, and of course born with profound meaning. In addition, they may have rhetoric features like assonance, alliteration, antithesis and rhyme, as in the example above East and west, home is best and Care kills a cat. Besides, proverbs also impart knowledge and provide advice and warnings. At last, everything has exceptions. Not every English proverb has a commonly-known equivalent Chinese proverb and vice versa. For example: 三个臭皮匠顶过一个诸葛亮：The three stooges are better than one Zhuge Liang. 此地无银三百两：No 300 taels of silver buried here. Because of dissimilarities of culture background, what exits in one language may not exist in another language. As in the example above, 三 个臭皮匠顶过一个诸葛亮, Zhuge Liang is a Chinese army adviser during the warring states times. Westerns dont even know who he is if they dont familiar with the Chinese history. So its better to translate this proverb into Two heads are better than one. Likewise, the second one should be A guilty person gives himself away by conspicuously protesting his i