LINGUISTIC SCHOOL 1531

THE TOPIC OF THE PROJECT

It Rains Cats and Dogs and other British idioms

Student: Sardachuk Tatiana

Grade: 11 “А”

Teacher: Maltseva Svetlana

School: 1531

MOSCOW 2019

CONTENTS

MY REASON P.2 PROBLEM P.2 AIM P.3 DEFINITION P.3 INTERESTING FACTS P. 3- 5 ENGLISH IDIOMS AND ITS VARIATIONS IN RUSSIAN P.5 SURVEY P.6 MY PRODUCT P. 6-8 CONCLUSION P.9 BIBLIOGRAPHY P.10 APENDIX P.11 -16

1

MY REASON

As soon as we were told to make a project or a survey I considered several topics. All of them were connected with the English language, with its history, with the varieties of English, with its spelling, with its pronunciation, with its borrowings from other languages, but nevertheless, strange as it may seem, I have chosen the project devoted to English idioms, because last summer I spent two months in London and it seemed to me that there are more idioms in English than just common words.

The first thing I heard from my fellow-students, when I came to London, was “it’s a bit nippy today”. Only some time later I found out that “nippy” means “cold” (of weather but nothing else).

I heard some more idioms while living in London, and it was difficult for me to understand their meaning, because I just didn’t know those idioms.

MY COCK-UPSAfter the first week of studying in London, I had a credit at my English school, and one of my fellow mates was very upset and said that it was a real cock-up. I was taken aback by his words, but it turned out to be an English idiom which meant “a failure’. When everything goes wrong, it’s a cock-up. It comes from printing, where a cock-up was one letter in a line higher than all the others. The advantage of the word is that it sounds a little obscene as it contains an English slang word for the male genitals, but it isn’t obscene, unless printing is obscene.

One day I was walking in the center of London, admiring its places of interest such as the Buckingham Palace, the House of Parliament and The Tower Bridge. An elderly woman came up to me and wondered if I could show her a way to a “karzy”. I thought that it was a place of interest unknown to me and got very interested, but it turned out to be an acceptable word for the lavatory or WC. It comes from Arabic word picked up by the British in North Africa during the war. It’s commonly said, but rarely written down, perhaps because nobody knows how to spell it.

So my cock-ups are a great example of the importance of learning English idioms which are often a stumbling block to foreign language students.

PROBLEMI decided to start learning idioms, but it is not an easy job, as I have tried several ways of learning idioms, but none of them seemed suitable. Why so? Idioms are often listed with a Russian translation and it is seldom showed how they should be used in different life situations. Moreover the origins of idioms are almost never known. The only acceptable sources of information are “Oxford Dictionary of Idioms” and “English Idioms In Use”, but I believe than it is not enough as these textbooks do not have anything to help to study idioms, except exercises.

2

AIM

The aim of my project is to make a useful source of information which will help people to learn idioms and use them properly in their everyday speech; and to show the importance of idioms in English as an essential part of the language.

English has thousands of idioms and most of them are informal. Learning to use them will make your English sound more native, so it’s a good idea to master some of them.

Do you know a story about a man who was confused?Do you know a story about a man who was confused because of his incompetence of English idioms? His name was Mr.Orestoff. Once he came to a party and met a beautiful English woman there. While speaking to her, he was suddenly interrupted by her words:

“Mr. Orestoff, don’t pull my leg” , she said.

He turned pale, then he turned red; he felt so ashamed that he looked at his hands. One was holding a cigarette and the other one was lying on his own knee.

It happened just because he didn’t know that “to pull ones leg” means “to make a full of smb or to play tricks” ( taken from the book “The other life and a faraway shore” by O.Orestoff)

This story is a great example of the importance of idioms in the English language.

DEFINITIONAn idiom is a phrase where the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words. An idiom is not to be confused with other figures of speech such as a metaphor, hyperbole or a proverb, so we should pay a proper attention to English idioms and their use. The idioms, part and parcel of the language, add immensely to its richness. At the same time they are often a stumbling block to foreign language student. (taken from The New Webster College Dictionary)

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE IDIOMSIn order to understand a language you must know what the idioms in that language mean, as they all have their own hidden meaning.

For example, I hope we all know the idiom “to let the cat out of the bag”. It certainly doesn’t have anything to do with a cat or a bag. It just means to “reveal a secret”. This might suggest that the English have a custom of keeping their pet cats in plastic bags. This isn’t the case, as far as I know: the cat in question is not an animal, but a whip. “The cat of nine tails” was a nasty

3

instrument with nine knotted lashes and was used for punishing insubordinate sailors in old days. Anyone who was fool enough to let the cat out of the bag and condemn a fellow sailor to this bloody form of punishment was expected to be unpopular.

As we know, idioms are widely used in all languages. And English has thousands of them. What do we use idioms for…?

To be different To communicate more clearly and more visually To express something which other words do not express

Idioms come from all different sources: from the bible to horse racing, from ancient fables to modern slang. Sometimes famous authors and storytellers such as Homer and William Shakespeare made them up to add spice to their writings. As the authors were popular, so the expressions they created became popular.

Some idioms come from Native American customs (to bury the hatchet), some become popular because they rhyme (snug as a bug in a rug).To bury the hatchet means to make peace with someone ( also it means to accidentally leave medical instruments inside a patient after surgery, but it is a slang). This idiom comes from a Native American custom for declaring peace between warring tribes. Snug as a bug in a rug means to be very warm and cozy. This expression alludes to a moth larva happily feeding inside a rolled-up carpet.

Some idioms originated from colloquialisms or slang, some were well-known proverbs and adages. Some idioms go back in time to the ancient Greeks and Romans, thousands years ago. Others are more recent.

It is common truth that idioms in different languages may mean the same, but they are composed of different words. Let’s take some of them. “He won’t set the Thames on fire” in Russian means “Звезд с неба не хватает”. We can clearly see that these idioms consist of differed words. There is the same idiom in Spanish “No haber inventado la polvora”.” Haber” means “to be”, inventado means “invent” and “la polvora” means “wildfire”. As you can see there is nothing about “Thames” or ‘fire”.

Another example is “to bare one’s heart” which means “to tell someone what you really feel”. In Russian it sounds like “ Излить душу”. In Spanish this idiom means “Hablar con el Corazon en la mano”. If we will translate this idiom word by word it will mean “To talk with your heart in your hand”.

We can also take an idiom “To vanish into thin air” which means to disappear without leaving evidence behind. In Russan it means “Как ветром сдуло” and in Spanish “Desapareser como por encanto” (disappear as if it were a magic).

The last example will be “A load off one’s mind”. It means “to say what one is thinking”. In Russian this idiom will mean “Как гора с плеч”, and in Spanish “Quitarse un peso de encima” (take a load off).

4

A word by word translation of an idiom will lead you nowhere. Even the most wild spread expression “How do you do?” is not a question at all. It’s a greeting and an English men would be taken aback if you reply. One should bear in mind that there are very few idioms in different languages that exactly coincide in meaning and use.

LATIN INFLUENCE

(According to fraeblishtip.org)

On the contrary, it is not a secret that all languages are influenced by Latin and ancient Greek. So the most wide spread idioms come from ancient times. In all world languages they have the same meaning and are composed of the same words.

Achilles heel (it means a weakness of something despite an overall strength. Achilles was the Greek champion in Greek mythology who was killed when he was injured on the heel. This was the only part of his body where he was weak)/

It’s all Greek to me (It means that you can’t understand something. The term “Greek” refers to the Greek language which was difficult to read by scientists during the Middle Ages).

Rome wasn’t built in a day (It means that you shouldn’t expect great things to be done quick).

When in Rome, do as the romans do (It means a person should behave like those around you).

Open Pandora’s Box (To begin or introduce something that leads to many other problems. A reference to the story from Greek mythology in which Pandora opens a box containing all the possible things that can affect humanity negatively).

ENGLISH IDIOMS AND ITS VARIATIONS IN RUSSIAN

In appendix 3 you can see a list of English idioms with their analogues in Russian. I believe that this list will help you to get acquainted with some of the idioms which sound like you have always known them. Besides, they will make your English sound more native.

Let’s take the idiom “to pull ones leg” which means in Russian “Водить кого-то за нос”. Another example is “to be born with a silver spoon in one’s mouth”, but Russians say “родиться в рубашке”.

Thus it shows that there is a great difference even in the mentality of the English-speaking people and the Russians. It may seem very amusing that idioms such as “another cup of tea”, “your fingers are all thumbs” and “a lame duck” do not coincide with their Russian equivalents at all. For example, “another cup of tea” means “совсем другое дело”, “your fingers are all thumbs” means “неуклюжий” and “a lame duck” means “неудачник” The Information you have read is very important for learning and using idioms. But it’s not so complicated.

5

SURVEY I have conducted a survey among the students of our school. To my surprise we have found out that most of them get confused while hearing even the most wide-spread of them, such as “it’s a piece of cake” or “to be as cool as a cucumber”. I’ve asked some more questions (do you know what an idiom is? How many idioms do you know? Do you know the meaning of the idiom “to pull one’s leg”? And do you know any idioms which come from ancient Greece?), to find out if

the problem is common for students. You can see the results of the survey in apx 1. In this appendix there are answers of my fellow-students to the questions listed above. Everybody knows what an idiom is, but few of them know more than ten ones, including the most wide-spread idioms, but they can’t even name any of them. This is a great example of incompetence of students in learning and using idioms in their speech. This leads to another problem: inability of people, studying English, to sound native and advanced.

These data show that my product will be very helpful, as the majority of people who answered my questions, just can’t find a suitable source of learning idioms.

MY PRODUCT. ABOUT THE PAGEI have decided to make my product a great fun which inspires foreign language students and makes their acquaintance with idioms easier. As I have already mentioned, English has thousands of idioms, and their meanings do not coincide with the dictionary definitions of the words an idiom consists of, that seems like a lot of work to learn at least a small part of them. So, my goal is to make your work fun. Thus, I have invented an understandable system of learning idioms, which I use in my group.

HOW DOES IT WORK?I have divided idioms into several groups such as: idioms connected with the parts of the body, idioms connected with the crime, idioms connected with the sea (as the British are proud of their naval heritage) etc. And I change these themes every month.

Every day I post an idiom connected with the theme of the month and give as much information as possible.

I give a brief definition of the idiom I give the usage of the idiom in different examples/situations I find out how it came into being I use funny pictures, connected with the idiom to amuse you. Difficult as it may seem, but nevertheless we try to find a song where the idiom is used.

(look apx.2) 6

According to the number of the members of my group, their activity and their interest in my web-page I can proudly say that I have stolen the show.

Any language where the unassuming word “fly” signifies an annoying insect, a means of travel and a critical part of a gentleman’s apparel is clearly asking to be mangled.

If you’re interested in English or you’re not sure of yourself (or maybe you’re not sure, but you want to check your knowledge) you may look them up in the group which I have founded in the VK (https://vk.com/it_rains_cats_and_dogs).

EXAMPLES OF MY WORKLet’s take some interesting idioms. For example “brass monkey weather”. As everybody knows, the British are proud of their naval heritage. This partly springs from the island mentality, but it is also a consequence of nostalgia for a more glorious past. The British love of things maritime is also reflected it the language. So commonplace are nautical expression in English that many people use them without having the faintest idea of their origins. On one of the numerous cold days in England you may hear someone use the expression “brass monkey weather”. The reason why people use this rather than the full expression “it’s cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey” is because they are afraid of saying something naughty. In fact the phrase shouldn’t be offensive. A brass monkey is not a primate but a tray for holding canons balls, or at least it was in Nelson’s day. In extremely cold weather the brass monkey and its iron cannon balls both contracted but brass and iron have different co-efficient of expansion. The result of this fact is that the cannon balls would occasionally fall of. When this happened the weather was declared cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.

Another interesting idiom is ‘to talk posh”. The British obsession with class is revealed in untranslatable word “posh’. Someone who “talks posh” has a well-to-do upper-middle class accent which will either impress or nauseate anyone who doesn’t. In Britain the posh accent is also the accent of leadership and many people have acquired one on their way to the top. Two leaders of the Conservative party, Edward Heath and Margaret thatcher, both had posh accents in spite of having grocer parents.

We can also take “ let one’s hair down” which means “to relax”. Letting one's hair down was a commonplace part of women’s' daily activities in the 17th century. The hair was normally pinned up and was let down for brushing or washing. The term used for this at the time was disheveling. Anyone who is unkempt and generally untidy might now be described as disheveled but then it applied specifically to hair which was unpinned.

My favorite idiom is “break a leg”, but it doesn’t mean something bad as you may think. It means ‘good luck’. A phrase of encouragement typically said to one who is about to perform before an audience, especially a theater actor. It is thought to be used due to the superstition that wishing one "good luck" will result in the opposite, but the exact origin of the phrase is unknown.

7

“To talk shop” is used when people start talking business at what's supposed to be a non-business event, like a family dinner or a child's birthday party. Traditionally it's a wife or mother who scolds male family members for talking shop in those situations. "Shop" was one of the three subjects of conversation forbidden in British Army officers' messes. (The other two were religion and ladies)

“To be as drunk as a lord” means ‘to be extremely drunk”. This idiom was considered proverbial by the mid-1600s and presumably alludes to the fact that noblemen drank more than commoners (because they could afford it).

Another funny idiom is “to be as cool as a cucumber” which means to be very calm especially when this is surprising. This idiom is derived from the cool attributes of cucumber. Cucumbers

always feel cool, green and fresh even in hot conditions. But the sense of the word “cool” in the expression doesn’t mean having a low temperature, it means self-confident and calm. The idiom was very first discovered in a verse by the British poet John Gay ‘New Song on New Similies’ in 1732: “Cool as a cucumber could see the rest of womankind”.

Let’s mention some idioms connected with the parts of the body. I’ve listed a lot in my appendix, but I have found some of them the most amusing such as “to get itchy feet” and “to use one’s loaf”. Any ideas about their meaning? If a person gets itchy feet, he wants to quit doing something he has been doing for some time, and start doing something new. For example “After studying for six years in a musical school, I got itchy feet”. If a person is advised to use his loaf any native speaker will understand he must think, use his loaf of bread, that is to say his head.

Quite incidentally I came across two idioms which are both connected with crime and with the parts of the body, and I think it is rather exciting. For example “to be caught red-handed” and “to grease someone’s palm”. To be caught red-handed means to be caught in the act of doing smth wrong (exp: While robbing a bank he was caught red-handed).

As far as “to grease someone’s palm” is concerned, it means to pay somebody a bribe (exp: He couldn’t get a license for building a new supermarket from local authorities and made up his mind to grease their palms ).

To sum up, let’s take the idiom everyone knows “keep pokerfaced”. It means not to show any emotion or reaction so that people don't know what you are feeling. But do you know the origin of that idiom? This term alludes to the facial expression of a poker player who is expert at concealing his feelings about his hand.

Idiom is not such an obvious expression or phrase, because it’s basic to the way English Speakers think. English language is one of the most idiomatic languages in the world.

8

CONCLUSION

I believe that learning languages is a great thing which broadens your mind and helps you to become multilingual which comes in handy especially nowadays when foreign languages are needed as the main and the most efficient means of information exchange of the people of our planet. Economists say than knowledge of foreign languages is among the most sought-after skills for people in the 21st century. You will be able to speak to people from other countries, to read foreign authors in the original which makes your outlook wider. It is not surprising that many intellectuals and well-educated people know many foreign languages and their proper

application. A good command of the language implies the knowledge of idioms which is part and parcel of the English language which is extremely idiomatic. A proper use of idioms gives you an air of authenticity. Idioms add immensely to the richness of English and give learners of English the way to the cultural treasures of the language. That’s why I think that it’s very important to improve your skills using structures only native speakers use. In my opinion, my web-page is very useful for English learners. It will expand vocabulary and make your language sound more native.

I’ve faced the problem of misunderstanding due to my incompetence in knowing idioms. My cock-ups during my stay in London is a great example of importance of learning idioms.

My web-page has a lot of subscribers who are eager to improve their language skills and by learning idioms they will sound more authentic while speaking the English language. Authenticity is an essential part of a good English learning student. Our goal while studying any language is to speak fluently and to understand the language accurately. Without knowing idioms it will be a great problem. And my web-page helps a lot to those who are really interested in knowing English well.

It’s difficult to understand Britain, but idioms are a piece of cake.

9

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INTERNET:

https://englishfull.ru/leksika/idiomi-s-perevodom.html

http://www.oxfordreference.com

https://www.theidioms.com

http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/

fraeblishtip.org

BOOKS:

English idioms In Use

Oxford Dictionary of Idioms

Oxford Dictionary of contemporary English

“The other life and a faraway shore” by O.Orestoff

The New Webster College Dictionary

10

APENDIX Apx.1

My Survey

11

12

Apx2

How my page works

13

My Web-Page

An Idiom and its meaning

Example

Origin

Funny picture

Music

Apx3

14

ENGLISH IDIOMS AND ITS VARIATIONS IN RUSSIA

as good as gold = как шелковый All sixes — все равно, без разницы Around the clock — круглосуточно All of a sudden — как гром среди ясного неба Another cup of tea — совсем другое дело Have been around — многое повидать, не вчера родиться Buy some time — оттянуть решающий момент, выиграть время The battle of books — ученый спор Behind closed doors — за закрытыми дверями, тайно To call somebody/something in/into question — ставить под сомнение To carry the can — оказаться крайним, оказаться без вины виноватым Call the shots — быть себе хозяином, распоряжаться (всем) Clean as a whistle — чистый, как стеклышко Have a close call — быть на волосок от гибели, трагедии Crunch time — очень напряженный период Cry wolf — ложная тревога Deep six — избавиться, выбросить что-либо A dirty look — злобный, недовольный взгляд Down at heel — потрёпанный; неряшливо одетый Draw the line — ставить точку Driving force — движущая сила; мотив Eye candy — приятное глазу Have/ get egg on one’s face — опозориться Eat one’s words — взять слова назад Eat crow — каяться, виниться An eager beaver — трудяга, излишне усердный работник, ретивый работник A fair field and no favour — игра/ борьба на равных условиях For old times' sake — в память прошлых лет, во имя прошлого, по старой дружбе From cradle to grave — от рождения до смерти; всю жизнь Friends in high places — связи, выгодные знакомства Full as a trick — наесться до отвала Foul play — нечестная игра Have the gift of the gab — иметь хорошо подвешенный язык, уметь красноречиво

говорить Green old age — бодрая старость, цветущая старость Half-and-half — так себе; ни то ни сё Hobson’s choice — выбор без выбора; безальтернативный выбор An Indian summer — бабье лето, золотая осень In hot water — в беде, в трудной ситуации

15

Ill at ease — не в своей тарелке In no time — в мгновение ока Jump for joy — прыгать от радости To keep to oneself — сторониться людей, быть нелюдимым Lame duck — неудачник, неумеха New blood — свежие силы, подмога

Pie in the sky — пустые мечтs Source: https://englishfull.ru/leksika/idiomi-s-perevodom.html

16