Some folks might think that a proverb is nothing more than nonsense. However, that’s not always true. A proverb can have deep meanings that are known only to the people who understand the language. Learning proverbs to learn English can be an excellent way to gain insight into those meanings and possibly even use them in your daily life.
One way that proverbs are used today is in the classroom. Old English has many phrases and words that have no meaning in today’s modern world, but have a unique Old English feel to them. Teachers often bring in Old English proverbs to help students understand where they’re going wrong. For example, one of the most popular Old English proverbs is “The fault in my heart is not that which I can change,” which many students know means that the student feels the teacher is being unkind to him/her.
Sometimes people use proverbs to learn English that have a specific meaning in their own culture. For example, when I was a little girl living in Southern Ireland, every household had a set of cookery books in which we were offered tales of food and cooking customs from throughout the British Isles. Every morning the mother of the house would bring one out and read it to us. The tales came from a good example, usually about something we did that day. In many cases, there were more than one example. One family’s cookbook became a book on its own, with literally thousands of illustrations of different dishes.
Not only were these excellent examples of Old English proverbs to learn English from, but they also gave great practical advice about how to behave in certain situations. Take, for example, the popular proverb “A pair of gloves can never break your bones.” There are two main ways to take this proverb and use it in your daily life: the literal meaning and the metaphorical meaning. The literal meaning states that if you wear gloves when it’s cold out, then your hands will stay safe from frostbite. The metaphorical meaning states that wearing gloves will keep your bones healthier and therefore avoid getting broken.
Of course, there are many other proverbs to help us learn English. One example is “A Tweet is better than a thousand words.” If you have a personal Twitter account, then you may regularly post short snippets of thoughts or even short jokes or comments about what’s happening in your world. Learning some of these famous English proverbs to tweet with will help you avoid bad things coming out in your 140 character tweets, so they will be better for your readers.
One of the most popular and longest lasting English proverbs is the ancient Chinese proverb, “Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a song will come out.” This Chinese proverb means “Keep something in your heart and perhaps that thing will come out.” This Chinese proverb basically means “Keep your feelings inside” which is why it is so effective as a metaphor. According to many Chinese experts, the most well-known and best-selling Chinese language novel, Dreams from the Lake (based on the famous fairy tale), was actually written using the Yiddish proverbs.
Another English proverb that is often quoted is “Out with the weak and in with the strong.” This famous British saying is often quoted as an advice for those who are struggling with feelings of weakness and who are afraid to try new things. However, the British version of this famous saying is “Out with the weak and in with the strong,” which obviously says that strong people should be put out of the way and that weakness must not be ignored. It also shows that even the strongest people need help from others in order to be successful. A common example of a proverb that can be used to help people overcome feelings of weakness or fear is the poem Go, My Child! by Charles Dickens.
English proverbs include famous sayings like “A sparrow can fall from the sky…but only a crow can fall into the right pit.” This famous line from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by William Shakespeare can be used to remind us that we should not let ourselves be fooled by trickery and false promises because if someone can make a promise but cannot keep it, then that promise is worthless. Another famous English proverb is “A woman’s delight is in her children.” The word “children” here refers to both sexes, but the phrase is saying that the true pleasure in a woman is in her children and how these children have tamed the wild beast within. These two wrongs don’t make a good trinity; therefore, these proverbs are better left alone.