What are Idioms and Proverbs?

What are Idioms and Proverbs?

All of us know some proverbs in Spanish or we are at least used to hearing our parents or grandparents using them. Personally, I love using them both in English and Spanish. This is why I would like to share some of them with you on my blog, as I believe that they enrich our lexicon a great deal. Refranes in English are called Proverbs or Sayings. According to Cambridge Dictionary, "a proverb is usually known by many people, stating something commonly experienced or giving advice." Here I give you an example in both languages so that you have a clear idea of what it is:

ES: No vendas la piel del oso antes de cazarlo.

EN: Don't count your chickens before they hatch.

When we want to give a piece of advice to somebody who is always making plans ahead without knowing whether they are going to be able to carry them out or not, we do not tell them in English not to sell the bear's fur before it is hunted, but not to count their chickens before they hatch, which means no cuentes los polluelos antes de que salgan del cascarón.

However, when I tell my students that Idiom means modismo, they ask me: "what is that?"  For this reason, I am going to give you several definitions of the word from different dictionaries which can be found online:

• Oxford Learner's Dictionary: "a group of words whose meaning is different from the meanings of the individual words."
• Cambridge Dictionary: "a group of words in a fixed order that have a particular  meaning that is different from the meanings of each word on its own." 
• Lexico Dictionary: "a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words."
• Collins Dictionary: "an idiom is a group of words which have a different meaning when used together from the one they would have if you took the meaning of each word separately." 

In other words, an idiom is an idiomatic expression. Several words are put together with a fixed structure and have a completely different meaning that they would have individually.  For example:

ES: Costar un ojo de la cara. 

EN: Cost an arm and a leg.

When something is extremely expensive, in Spanish, it costs an eye; in English, it costs an arm and a leg. 

Before I start sharing more Idioms and Proverbs with you, I wanted to clarify the concepts, especially that of Idiom. I hope this post has helped and has been useful as an introduction to the type of content you are going to find on this blog. Should you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to write a comment.

See you soon!

Bibliography:

1. Cambridge University Press (2019). Proverb. Retrieved from: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/proverb
2. Oxford Learner´s Dictionary. (2019). Idiom. Retrieved from: https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/idiom?q=idiom
3. Cambridge University Press (2019). Idiom. Retrieved from: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/idiom 
4. Lexico Dictionary. (2019). Idiom. Retrieved from: https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/idiom 
5. Collins (2019). Idiom. Retrieved from: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/idiom