MASARYK UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF EDUCATION

Department of English Language and Literature

COMPARISON OF ENGLISH, GERMAN AND CZECH

ANIMAL IDIOMS

Final Thesis

Brno 2016

Supervisor: Written by:

Mgr. Radek Vogel, Ph.D. Mgr. Jana Rožňáková

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I would like to thank my supervisor Mgr. Radek Vogel Ph.D.
for his kind attitude and guidance.

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Prohlašuji, že jsem závěrečnou práci vypracovala samostatně, s využitím pouze citovaných
literárních pramenů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s Disciplinárním řádem pro
studenty Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a se zákonem č. 121/2000 Sb., o právu
autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých zákonů
(autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů.

……………………………..

V Brně dne Mgr. Jana Rožňáková

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Contents

1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………….. 5

2. Theoretical part………………………………………………………………….. 7

2.1 English language and German language…………………………………....7

3. Study of idioms……………………………………………………………….. 11

3.1 Where idioms come from………………………………………….…........11

3.2 What are idioms……………………………………………………….….. 13

4. Classification of idioms…………………………………………………….… 13

4.1 Syntactic classification…………………………………………….……... 14

4.2 Degrees of fixity………………………………………………………….. 15

4.3 Degree of semantic transparency……………………………………….…16

5. Comparison of idioms………………………………………………………... 18

5.1 Analogous idioms…………………………………………………….…... 19

5.2 Slightly modified idioms ……………………………………………..….. 27

5.3 Functionally equivalent idioms……………………………………………32

5.4 Idioms without counterparts……………………………………………… 38

6. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………..... 43

Bibliography………………………………………………………………......… 45

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1. Introduction
The aim of this work is to deal with idioms, especially with animal idioms, and to compare
their structure and meaning in three different languages – in English, German and Czech.

Idioms are a part of everyday communication in many languages in the whole word. We use
them in our conversation, read them in books, newspapers and advertisements, we can hear
them in many places, shortly, they are an essential part of our lives. For our perception of the
outside world, the passive command of idioms is much more important than the active using
of them. When speaking or writing, we can always make us understood using simple words
and sentences without any idioms. However, according to Oxford Dictionary of Current
Idiomatic English the accurate and appropriate use of English expressions which are in the
broadest sense idiomatic is one distinguishing mark of a native command of the language and
a reliable measure of the proficiency of foreign learners. …

Shortly, idioms are not compulsory for our communication and understanding but they
make our utterances more interesting and motivating. In fact, people’s acceptation and
command of idioms differ. It may be said that the usage of particular idioms depends on
people´s origin, age and education. E.g. the meaning of the idiom to have a Van Gogh´s ear
for music that denotes a person who is tone deaf and sings out of tune, could be hardly
understood by low educated people not only in less developed countries. On the other hand,
those people undoubtedly use idioms unknown for average educated person.

According to my experience, there is also a gap between the older and younger generation.
Older average educated people, especially those who are interested in languages, have a
higher command of idioms and proverbs, which originates in their reading and written
communication. The young generation communicate very often using electronic devices. The
symbiotic relationship between young people and the internet and mobile phones has brought
a lot of speedy and short ways of communication. They include e.g. acronyms like 4ever,
4you, cya (see you again), cyal8r (see you all later) or TTYL (talk to you later). The above
mentioned ”short words” share a common feature with idioms – they are opaque and their
meaning can not be deduced from the meaning of their elements. Moreover, it has been often
claimed that young people do not read very much and so, from the perspective of my theses,
they miss an important source of idioms.

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 In my thesis I would like to show how amusing the idioms are and how close the
connection between the English and the German language is in this area. I do not want to
collect quotations from many dictionaries and scientific books but my aim is to introduce a
collection of animal idioms, similes and proverbs in English, German and Czech, to analyze
them. The range of idioms is quite wide and so I decided to choose idioms involving an
animal in their structure to narrow the choice. Animal idioms seem to be quite illustrative.
People and animals are in contact in different ways for ages and we can easily imagine their
appearance, their typical features and basic characteristic and we are able to apply this
knowledge to people’s appearance and behaviour and to express what the people are like.
Interestingly, different people perceive the same animals in different ways. E.g. Czech and
English people say - steal like a magpie / krást jako straka but Germans blame the raven for
stealing and say – stehlen wie ein Rabe.

The introduction of my thesis is followed by a theoretical part - by the basic comparison of

English and German and by studies of idioms based on English and German dictionaries of
idioms and books that deal with this area of language. The third part includes four tables.

In the first table there are analogous idioms including the same animal name both in
English and in German e.g. dog-tired – hundemüde or play cat and mouse – Katze und Maus
mit j-m spielen and denoting the same or similar situation.

In the second table there are slightly modified English and German idioms that have the
same meaning expressed by using different animal names e.g. a guinea pig –
Versuchskaninchen or have bats in the belfry – einen Vogel haben.

The third table introduces functionally equivalent idioms that denote the same occurrences
depicted by not only animal names e.g. like a bat out of hell – wie ein geölter Blitz.

The fourth table includes isolated animal idioms found only in English.

The conclusion of the thesis should outline the differences and similarities between the
perception of the surrounding world in English and German expressed by idioms.

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2. Theoretical part

2.1 English language and German language.

The two languages, English and German, whose idioms I am going to focus on have a
common ancestor, which is the reason of many similarities between the both languages
maintained till present day despite many changes in both English and German during long
millenniums.

The following chapter draws information from a variety of books and internet texts and there
are also some personal observations added. The main sources were books Historicý vývoj
němčiny by Zdeněk Masařík, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language by David Crystal,
Die deutsche Sprache by Ursula Esser and internet texts “Three Things All Germanic
Languages Have in Common” by Sarah-Claire Jordan, “A Brief History of the German
Language” by Linda Andrea, “Seven Distinctive Features of Germanic” on
http://pages.towson.edu/duncan/germanic and finally the text “Language Origin and
Development” on pages www.phil-fak.uni duesseldorf.de

Both English and German belong to the Indo-European language family that includes ten
major branches. One of the branches is the Germanic branch. All Germanic languages
descend from Proto-Germanic, also called Common Germanic or Ur-Germanic, which is a
proto-language that was reconstructed from all Germanic languages using the comparative
method.

There are not any surviving texts attesting the Proto-Germanic language that was likely
spoken after ca. 500 BC in Iron Age Northern Europe. Proto-Germanic is itself descended
from Proto-Indo-European. The ,”first consonant shift” separated the Germanic languages
from all other Indo-European languages. It may have been 500 BC.According to Sarah-Claire
Jordan:

. It can be broken down into three parts that all show changes that occurred when the Germanic
languages broke away from Proto-Indo-European. Voiceless stops of Proto-Indo-European
turned into voiceless fricatives in the Germanic languages. In English, voiceless stops would be
the [p], [t], and [k] sounds, while voiceless fricatives include [f], [s], [h], [θ] (like the “th” in
“bath”), and [ ʃ ] (“sh” of “should”), and [ʒ] (“s” in “pleasure”). The voiced stops of Proto-Indo-
European ( [b], [d], and [g] sounds in English) became voiceless stops. Finally, the voiceless
aspirated stops ( like the “p” sound in “punch”) found in Proto-Indo-European transformed into

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 either voiced stops ( [b], [d], and [g] sounds in English) or voiced fricatives, which in English
are [v], [z], [ð] (“th” in “father”), and [ʒ] (“s” in “pleasure”).

The changed accent, phonology and inflection were the most significant differences
between Proto-Germanic and Proto- Indo-European. The original free dynamic accent was put
on the first syllable and became stronger, which led to the reduction of end syllables or even
to their loss. This way many grammatical endings vanished and the synthetic language
changed into an analytic. Instead of endings articles, prepositions or pronouns were used and
thanks to this, the grammatical construction of Proto-Germanic became less complicated.
Although, there is not a pure synthetic or analytic language. Until the Middle English period
(11th–16th century), the English language was heavily inflected and then it changed
enormously both in grammar and in vocabulary. An overall reduction in grammatical endings
occurred, e.g. many noun and adjective endings were levelled to –e and the plural noun
marker –en gave way to –s. As the inflection vanished, many misunderstandings may have
appeared and so the fixed word order was established. The subject was placed before the verb
and the object after the verb, which is not an unchangeable rule in German, where the
inflection of nouns has been expressed through the inflection of articles.

The Germanic branch was divided into West Germanic, North Germanic and East Germanic
languages. English and German belong to the West Germanic group of the Germanic
languages and are the most widely spoken languages of this group – English with
approximately 400 million native speakers and German with about 100 million native
speakers.

Some shared features of Germanic languages indicate the common ancestor, e.g. the use of
modal verbs – English: may, can, must, etc., German: dürfen, können, müssen, etc.; the
division of verbs into strong and weak classes – English: e.g. sing, sang, sung and other
strong verbs, German: singen, sang, gesungen (strong verb and the sound changes known as
Grimm’s and Verner’s laws, e.g. the word for foot begins with /f/ in Germanic languages –
English foot, German Fuß, Norwegian and Swedish (North Germanic languages) fot – the
initial /f/ is derived from Proto-Indo-European /p/ through Grimm’s law.

According to historical sources (e.g. Ecclesiastical History by Beda in 731AD), the

German differences between English and German started in the 6th century when Angels,
Saxons and Jutes arrived in British Isles from the North of the continent. After the Anglo-
Saxon settlement, the Germanic language was influenced by the languages of the native

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people, by the Celtic languages. In the 10th and 11th century, mainly in the North England, the
Old English was affected by the language of Scandinavian invaders. Under William the
Conqueror (1028 – 1087), French became the language of high-ranking nobles, while English
was spoken by the common people, and influenced the original language for three centuries.
In this time, many French words were taken into English. An interesting example may be the
word-pairs ox – beef, sheep – mutton, swine – pork, calf – veal. The first word denotes the
animal and is of English origin. The second one means the meat and is a French loan word.
Also Latin as the language of both Celtic and Roman churches had a great impact for long
years.

The language of the present German territory was influenced by other historical events and
its development differs from the English one. German evolved from Germanic languages
through the ’’second consonant shift’’ which began before the 7th century AD and moved
from mountainous area of the south (High German) to the low lands of the north (Low
German) and never quite reached the coastal line. So to this day, there are Low German
dialects that did not reflect the changes. During this shift Germanic p, t, k became High
German pf, z, ch as the following English-German word-pairs demonstrate: penny – Pfennig,
tooth – Zahn, make – machen.

Modern German like other languages has gone through a few phases of development:
- Old High German (from about 700 AD to the 11th century)
- Middle High German (from about 1050 to 1350)
- Early New High German (from 1350 to 1600)
- New High German (from 1600 to the present)

The above mentioned development reflected social, political and technological changes in
the society. New contacts between countries, weather during a war or trading, new scientific
discoveries and technical inventions introduced many new words. Language had to adapt to
the needs. From the Roman occupation of the Rhine-Danube area and the dominance of
Roman Catholic church, Latin had a notable influence on the vocabulary of German. Its
spread throughout the Germanic world as the only language of the administrative bodies
remained until the 13th century. During the centuries German was exposed to the influence not
only of Latin but also of Dutch, French, Italian and English, shortly to the influence of the
languages of the countries German people maintained social, political or cultural contacts
with.

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 Overseas voyages and trading with distant countries had also a significant impact on both
English and German. Both languages adopted many names of goods like tomato – Tomate,
which comes from the Spanish, tea – Tee, which derivates from Chinese, coffee – Kaffee are
based on Turkish Kahve, the words banana in English and Banane in German come from
Arabic word banan, which actually means ”finger” and the words tobacco in English and
Tabak in German originate from the Spanish and Portuguese word tabaco.

As Germany did not become a unified country until 1871, when Germany was united by
Otto von Bismarck into the “German Reich”, that consisted of 25 states and its inhabitants
were exposed to severe Germanization, regional dialects remained dominant. The location of
the language users – mountainous regions or lowlands – characterized the features of German
dialects. There were not only phonological differences but also the vocabulary was influenced
by who was using the language and for what purpose. Living conditions in the northern and
southern parts of the country were quite different and so were the people’s activities and their
reflection in the language. Local dialects were not used by the court poets who wrote in a
language that could be understood in all German-speaking regions.

The turning point in the development of German language were the Protestant Reformation
and printing, a clear standard language was required. A significant acquisition was made by
Martin Luther’s (1483-1546) translation of the bible. He introduced a standard language
based on the chancellery language in use at the Saxon court in Meissen that was
understandable to the common man. This was the language that formed the basis for today’s
standard German, often referred to as “Hochdeutsch”.

Except Luther, there were a few other scientists and men of letters who took care of the
German language and contributed to its development. Jacob Grimm is called the father of
Germanics, which is academic study of German language and literature. His Deutsche
Grammatik (German Grammar), that appeared in many editions from 1893 to 1840, was the
first major work on the history of the German language. Grimm´s Deutsches Wörterbuch
(German Dictionary), the first volume of which was first published in 1854, is the standard
work on German etymology. The Dictionary was undertaken on so large scale that it was
completed only in 1961 by subsequent scholars. The first guide to standard stage
pronunciation Deutsche Bühnenaussprache (German Stage Pronunciation) was written by
Theodor Siebs in 1898.

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 The last reform of the German language dates back to the year 1996. It applies especially to
orthography and comma rules. Its aim was to unify German used in Germany, Austria and
Switzerland. The reform led to controversy and some states (Bundesländer) refused to accept
it. The highest court decided that the reformed language had to be taught at schools and other
bodies could decide for themselves.

As you can see, all languages develop and change steadily as the surroundings change.
More over, the attitude to the language changes. Vocabulary and grammatical features that
were considered to be informal or even unacceptable become neutral and widely used even by
educated speakers, which unfortunately may devastate the image of the language and spoil the
pleasure of perception of the language e.g. Shakespeare´s figures using slang on the stage..
In the present day, English became the foreign language number one and penetrates German
as well as other languages all over the world. From this point of view, we can claim that the
relationship between English and German is becoming tighter in the last decades,
undoubtedly, thanks to the wide spread of communications technologies and globalisation.
German language adopts English words especially from the Computer World although many
with its German pronunciation – like PC [pe:ce:] or DVD [de: fau de:]. There is a great
impact of computer games and songs in English on young generation and hardly any German
lässt sich vom Arzt untersuchen as there is the modern verb durchchecken derived from the
English verb check. Both above mentioned languages become hardly as close as in the old
Germanic era but they do not only co-exist, they mingle and influence each other.

3 .Study of idioms

3.1. Where the idioms come from.

Idioms are an essential part of many languages and have been undoubtedly used for
centuries. ”They appear in formal style and in slang, in poetry, in the language of Shakespeare
and the Bible” (Seidl 12).

They are mostly collocations of two or more words and their real meaning can be seldom
deduced from the literal translation of their elements, e.g. monkey business. Although, the
meaning of some idioms can be guessed when one uses her / his oven imagination and fantasy
e.g. eat like a horse. One-word idioms with specific meaning occur as well. The words
Bücherwurm in German and bookworm in English have the same meaning and denote a
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person who is fond of reading. As idioms are fix collocations and you can rarely change their
elements without losing the real meaning, they must be learned and understood as a whole.

Idioms are distinguished not only by their relatively stable structure but they have also their
historical, geographical, cultural and social background. Interesting is for example the origin
of the German idiom Pechvogel, which denotes an unlucky person / walking disaster. The
origin of this word refers to the medieval birdhunting. Birds were caught with a stick spread
with resin and those who sat on this stick stuck there and ere unlucky. The German
collocation weg vom Fenster can be translated “not to be seen in the window” and refers to
the social circumstances and means “to lose the previous importance in the social life”, “miss
something or die”. The examples given by Margaret Ann Richek in her book The World of
Words are focused on historical and geographical background as well. She says.

Some animals retain important position in modern religions and these are honoured in words and
idioms. The Hindu religion holds cows in high esteem, and traditional Hindus will not kill cow or eat
beef. These practices have resulted in the English expression scared cow, meaning a belief that is so well
established that it cannot be challenged. More the two thousand years ago, the ancient Jews had a custom
in which they chose one goat to symbolize people’s sins against God. The goat was released into the
desert wilderness, symbolically carrying sins away with it. Although this custom vanished long ago, the
English word scape- goat still means someone who takes the blame for another.

Although the three languages English, German and Czech developed in their oven ways,
English and German are Germanic languages, Czech is a West Slavic language, they have
met, mingled and influenced each other during long periods. So many identical idioms with
the same meaning are found in all this languages e.g. flea market or live like a cat and dog in
English, Flohmarkt or wie Katze und Hund leben in German and bleší trh or žít jako kočka a
pes in Czech. The first one may originate from literal translation of French marché aux puces
and there are a few interpretations of its background. On the other hand, many idiomatic
meanings are expressed by quite different words or there is no a counterpart in any of the
above mentioned languages. Compare for example the following sentences: It has been
raining cats and dogs all day, / Es gießt in Strömen den ganzen Tag../ Leje jako z konve celý
den.

The aim of this thesis is to deal with animal idioms that originate from the close
connection between people and the nature especially in the past when people depended widely
on the nature, had a close contact to animals and could observe their appearance as well as
their behaviour. The experience with animals became a part of the everyday life and was

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generalized so as a hard working person has been called a busy bee and works like a horse
and after that may eat like a pig. The bad reputation of rats has given us the phrase to smell a
rat or to rat on. Nowadays, the connection between people and the nature is not as tight as it
used to be so that many children believe that the cow is violet because they know only the
cow from the TV ads for Milka-chocolate. For above mentioned reasons, I do not assume that
many new animal idioms occur. In my opinion, the idiomatic of languages has been extended
by adding of e.g. acronyms like 4you, new word formations like smog, blogger – vlogger and
sayings or catchphrases that congeal through permanent repetition and become an essential
part of the vocabulary, although their usage requires a certain background knowledge. Our
modern life has brought idioms like backseat driver who is a passenger in a car giving
unwanted advice to the driver, brain drain denotes the departure of highly qualified people
for other countries where they have better opportunities and better pay, back-room boys are
people who do important work without contact with the public, golden handcuffs refers to a
large sum of money granted to an executive as an incentive to stay in their job or to insure a
long-term cooperation after their departure. These and many other examples are found on
www. learn-english-today.com/idioms. A lot of sayings and catchphrases originate from
historical figures or popular films. Harry S. Truman’s utterance from 1942 before he became
president If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen says according to the Cambridge
Advanced Learner’s Dictionary that someone should either stop complaining about a difficult
or unpleasant activity or stop doing it. The sentence I am going to make him an offer he can’t
refuse. seems to come from the world of politics but actually it was uttered by Don de Vito in
the film ,,The Godfather,,. The catchphrases Hasta la vista, baby. (Until the next sighting.)
and I’ll be back. are associated with the Arnold Schwarzeneger’s title character from science
fiction thriller film Terminator. Norman’s utterances My mother isn’t quite herself today. and
A boy’s best friend is his mother. ( an answer to Marion’s question Do you go out with friends
? ) in Alfred Hitschkok’s film Psycho became petrified and a part of common vocabulary. If
we want to announce that it must be easy to find the right answer, we can use the compilation
of Sherlock Holmes’ words Elementary, my dear Watson. And who does not know the
famous utterance Nobody is perfect. from the film Some like it hot.

The list of words, sayings and catchphrases could be continued. I introduced only a few
examples to illustrate how the language adopts words and sentences from the surrounding
world and gives them their specific meaning, which makes the communication lively and

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amusing although sometimes the knowledge of the background is necessary to understand the
meaning well.

3.2. What are idioms

Heaving read a number of books on idioms, we find out that there is not a single definition
of idioms. Different authors divide idioms in different groups and use diverse terminology.

Cambridge Advanced Learner´s Dictionary states that idioms are groups of words in a
fixed order that have a particular meaning that is different from the meaning of each word on
its own. Longman´s Dictionary of English Idioms adds:

They are also more or less invariable or fixed in form or order in a way that makes them
different from literal expressions. Because they are metaphorical, one cannot usually discover their
meanings by looking up the individual words in a ordinary dictionary. Because they are more or
less invariable, both in wording and in certain grammatical ways, they cannot be changed or varied
in the way literal expressions are normally varied, whether in speech or writing

It depends mainly on the context whether we perceive a collocation to be figurative or

literal. The favourite example used in many dictionaries and thesis is the idiom kick the bucket
that has literal as well as metaphorical meaning. Considered the literal meaning, we can kick a
small old green bucket (or pail) while the metaphorical meaning does not allow any changes.
The same way can be used many other collocations like see the stars or spill the beans.

Adam Makkai´s quotation of Hockett´s definition of the idiom in the book Idiom Structure
in English (Makkai 28) may serve as an example how different these definitions may be.
Hockett says: “Let us momentarily use the term Y for any grammatical form the meaning of
which is not deducible from its structure. Any Y, in an occurrence in which it is not a
constituent of a larger Y, is an idiom.”

Makkai himself offers the division of idioms into six classes in his book (Makkai 191-340):

1. phrasal verb idioms which are a combination of a verb and an adverb, a verb and a
preposition, and a verb with an adverb and a preposition.

2. tournure idioms which he describes as ”a polylexonic lexeme of a larger size-level than a

phrasal veb insofar as it consists of at least three lexons that are lexemes elsewhere as in have
it out (with) and have it in for. These two examples contrast with phrasal verb idioms insofar

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as they have a compulsory it in a fixed position between the verb and the adverb” (Makkai
148).

3. irreversible binominal idioms – for the definition of which Makkai uses the Ykov
Malkiel´s description “…a binominal is a formula consisting of parts A and B joined by a
finite set of links the order of which cannot be reversed.” (Makkai 155), such as black and
blue (bruised) or heads or tails (tossing of coins).

4. phrasal compound idioms represent a large group of word combinations. They are made
up of adjective plus noun (blue blood), noun plus noun (book worm, snake in the grass)
prepositional adverbial format plus noun (downtown, offside), noun plus verb (fish fry),
adjective plus adjective (redhot), adjective plus verb (small fry), verb plus noun (hangnail)
and finally of adverb plus prepositional adverbial format (down-to-earth).

5. incorporating verb idioms are complex lexemes the first lexon of which “is a noun or an
adjective in other environments , and a literal re-encoding of many of them reveals a related
structure where the verb leads the construction which is either followed by a direct object
and/or an appropriate choice of prepositional phrase. Thus,to eavesdrop ‘surreptitiously to
overhear’ is an idiom, but the corresponding literal structure to drop eaves or to drop
(something) from the eaves has no semantic connection with ‘to overhear’.To sight-see is also
an idiom. A person looking out through his window also sees sights, but he doesn’t sight-see.
To sight-see has a paraphrase ‘to visit famous places as a tourist in organized group or by
oneself.”(Makka 168).

6.pseudo-idioms are “ lexemic idioms one of whose constituents is a cranberry morph. The
idiom may include one or more banned lexons” (Makkai 169). These morphs and lexons are
unique and occur only in fixed combination as a meaningful expression e.g.chit-chat (small
talk), fiddle-faddle (sensless talk), topsey-turvey (overturned), hocus-pocus (magic).

Another linguist dealing with idioms is Dwight Bolinger. In his book Aspects of Languege
he defines idioms ’’as groups of words with set meanings that cannot be calculated by adding
up the separate meanings of the parts. Some idioms are virtually unchangeable, like Hold your
horses..... neither subject nor verb can normally be changed…..nor can the object be
changed…..Others allow a limited amount of manipulation; for example He’s dead to the
world….. can be changed for person and time…..They were dead to the world. ’’(Bolinger
100).

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 Bolinger also speaks about families of idioms derived from the most compact idiomatic
form e.g.to be worth while appears with several other nouns accompanied by the definite
article: to be worth the bother/the trouble/the struggle/the effort. It can also be separated by
possessivs like It’s worth my while.

In Bolinger’s book appears also the term collocation which denotes “looser groupings about
which something can be said over and beyond what is apparent from looking at the individual
parts.Knowing the parts one can deduce the meaning, so that a collocation is not quite an
idiom; but it is in some way specialiyed” (Bolinger 102).

In this thesis Fernando´s definition of idioms will be applied (Fernando 3). According to
her, idioms are conventionalized multiword expressions that are commonly accepted and the
term ,”idiom” can be inclusive, covering all fixed phrases and figures of the speech, such as
similes, proverbs and sayings.

4. Classification of idioms

Books dealing with idioms differ also in their classification. Dictionaries classify them
alphabetically or according to their themes e.g. body parts, colours, animal, etc. Moon ( Moon
72 – 73) divides idioms into seven categories according to the content of their message:
actions (e.g. spill the beans); events (e.g. have blood on one´s hands); situations (e.g. to be up
a gum tree); people and things (e.g. a lounge lizard); attributes (e.g. as green as grass);
evaluations (e.g. turn back the clock); and emotions (e.g. green with envy).

Researches often classify idioms according to their level of literalness and fixity. These
classification can be found in the Oxford Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English (hereafter
abbrev. ODCIE). In this dictionary, idioms are divided in two fundamental groups – clause
idioms and phrase idioms (ODCIE xi) and after that in four categories dealing with their
opaqueness and variability. This division shows that idiomaticity is largely a semantic matter
expressed through grammatical patterns.

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4.1 Syntactic classification

The most common clause patterns spanned by idioms are the following:

Verb + Complement go berserk, turn white

Verb + Direct Object smell a rat, have green fingers

Verb + Direct Object + Complement paint the town red, keep the flag flying

Verb + Indirect Object + Direct Object do sb credit, lend sb a hand

Verb + Direct Object + Adjunct take sth amiss

The above mentioned clause idioms are almost full sentences. Only subjects need to be added.
The rules of grammar apply to the majority of multiword expressions.

The most common phrase patterns are:

Noun Phrase a crashing bore, red herring

Adjective Phrase wet behind the ears, green with envy

Prepositional Phrase in the nick of the time, in someone´s bad books

Adverbial Phrase as often as not, down and out

According to Longman Dictionary of English Idioms,(hereafter abbrev. LDEI) these phrase

idioms “,….. are not almost full sentences but rather function like particular parts of speech.
An idiom noun phrase, for example, will often function in a sentence in the same way a noun
would, as a subject, direct object, or, perhaps most frequently, as a complement. Thus, the
idiomatic noun phrase the salt of the earth will normally be used as a complement, as in he is
the salt of the earth” (LDEI ix).

17
4.2. Degree of fixity

The degree of fixity of most idioms differs since the vocabulary or grammar can vary to
some extent without disturbing the comprehension. Moreover, different words are used also
due to cultural preferences e. g.

lay the table (BrE) - set the table (AmE).

have green fingers (BrE) – have a green thumb (AmE)

let off steam (BrE) – blow off steam (AmE)

Considering the invariability of composites on the one hand and their ability to be changed
and retain their meaning at the same time on the other hand, many dictionaries and essays
divide word combinations into four groups that are introduced e.g. in ODCIE ( ODCIE xii).

1. Pure idioms are fixed word combinations that do not permit substitution of words by
similar words. They are figurative in meaning and ,” …..form the end point of a process by
which word-combinations first establish themselves through constant re-use, then undergo
figurative extension and finally petrify or congeal” (ODCIE xii). The expressions a red
herring, rain cats and dogs, jump out of the skin or jump down somebody´s throat in English
and e.g.den inneren Schweinehund überwinden in German may serve as examples. They
must be learned and understood as a whole and are non-compositional in meaning – their
meaning cannot be deduced from the meaning of their single components.

2. Figurative idioms have both a literal and a figurative (non-compositional) meaning. They
are idiomatic in the sense that variation is seldom found and pronoun substitution unlikely.

For example, the components of the idiom have bats in the belfry, that means to be eccentric
or mad, can not be changed as you choose if its figurativeness should be maintained. It is
impossible to say e.g. have owls in the tower. On the other hand, its literal meaning allows
changes. You can have any animal in belfry if there is space enough. The German idiom einen
Vogel haben can be treated equally. The figurative interpretation of these phrases is more
common and the literal one is seldom, if ever, applicable. Although, the real meaning can be
understood only from the context in that the expression is used.

18
3. Semi-idioms, sometimes referred to as restricted collocations, are made up of
combination of literally and figuratively interpreted words. One word has a figurative sense
not found outside that limited context. The other one appears in a literal sense. For example,
the utterance Karel Gott is a golden boy. does not mean that he is made of gold but that he is a
very successful and popular person. The word boy can be interpreted literally and, since a boy
is a human being, gold is obviously figurative. Some of semi-idioms allow a degree of lexical
variation – consider for instance a golden heart, a golden handshake, a golden rule. The
literal element can be sometimes replaced by a pronoun or omitted in sentences where there is
an earlier use of the full expression e.g. “After a long discussion, most of my colleagues
changed their tune and I changed it either. But now - They are said to lose their face and I
bother to lose mine.” An example of the omission offers the ODCIE (ODCIE xiii) “Bloggs
had a rather chequered career, and I have heard it said that Blenkinsop´s was equally
chequered.”

4. Open collocations, known also as “loose” or “free-word combinations” are made of

elements that usually go together and each of which retains its common literal sense and is to
a large extent freely recombinable. The words in collocation appear in a syntactic relationship
with a given headword. The meaning of an open collocation is composed of the meaning of
its words.

It is possible to create a number of combinations from the open collocation e.g. read the
book. You can say buy / lend / borrow / lose the book or read the newspaper / magazine /
letter / e-mail. But it would be quite peculiar to say cook the book or read the glasses
because these words do not go usually together.

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4.3. Degree of semantic transparency

Idioms also vary in degree of their literalness on the one hand and their metaphorical
character on the other hand. From this point of view, four types of idioms can be
distinguished:

1. Transparent idioms, also referred to as literal idioms – their meaning can be derived from
the meaning of their constituents e.g to talk behind someone´s back (English) or Mein
Geduldfaden rei3t .(German) These idioms are generally comprehensible for their user
without any further explanation.

2. Semi-transparent idioms allow both a literal and an idiomatic meaning. When you throw
in the towel idiomatically, you lose all hope and give up. The same meaning expresses the
German phrase die Flinte ins Korn werfen. These idioms can tell of a condition that is similar
or comparative to a real thing like kill two birds with one stone or add fuel to the fire. Their
idiomatic meaning may not be understood by all speakers and may require some explanation
especially when they are used without any context.

3. Semi-opaque idioms are more idiomatic than semi-transparent idioms and their literal
meaning is often rather unintelligible. They are nearly opaque as the following examples from
the Oxford Learner´s Dictionary of English Idioms (hereafter abbrev. OLDEI) show - paint
everything whit the same brush, which means to judge a whole group of people or things
unfairly because of your bad experience with one or a few of them (OLDEI 285) and now the
boot is on the other foot, which denotes that a situation is now the opposite of what it was
(OLDEI 24). To semi-opaque idioms may belong the French expression Elle a du chien - free
translated as She has some dog´s features. Obviously, the question arises if the estimation is
positive or negative. In fact, a woman with such features has been found sexy and it is not
nice to be refused by such a woman, which implies the German sayings einen Korb
bekommen or jemandem einen Laufpass geben.

4. Opaque idioms have been described as pure idioms. It is impossible to decode their
meaning from their constituents. They have to be learned by heart together with their
meaning, which is the only one possibility to use them correctly. None of components of the
expression jump down someone´s throat gives away the real meaning of the idiom that says

20
that someone reacts with an angry utterance to an unpleasant situation. In such an irritating
situation Germans use to say

and express that they are so angry that they could nearly rise in the air. Both above listed
idioms are unintelligible without exact knowledge of their meaning and usage.

The above mentioned division into four categories can be undoubtedly discussed. The
definition of transparent idioms is clear-cut and unquestionable. But the boundaries between
semi-transparent and semi-opaque idioms and between semi-opaque and opaque idioms are
not easy to mark out. In my opinion, the affiliation of idioms with the three last categories
depends very often on the interpreter, his/her point of view and his/her ability to persuade the
addressees.

As the opaqueness of idioms differs, it is necessary to be very careful about their translation
into the target language and vice versa to avoid misunderstanding, ridiculous situations or
even offences. The literal translations of e.g. It was a fine kettle of fish. into German – Es war
ein schöner Kessel mit Fischen. or into Czech - To byl pěkný kotel ryb. would be hardly
comprehensible for German or Czech speakers, they would hardly understand, that a difficult
problem or situation are meant. In the late eighties the Czech dubbing of German films used
to utter Jsi kyselý ?, which should have meant Bist du sauer ? / Are you sour ? Many similar
examples can be found everywhere, very often in advertising texts.

5. Comparison of idioms

In this chapter English and German idioms will be compared according to three levels of
similarity and divided into three tables.

The first table contains analogous idioms – English idioms and their German counterparts
that have the same meaning and use the same lexis, and as the case may be, their structure is
identical.

The second table consists of slightly modified idioms – English idioms and their German
counterparts that express the same meaning but use different names of animals.

21
 The third table presents functionally equivalent idioms that have the same meaning in
English as well as in German but completely differ in their lexis.

In the fourth table there are English idioms without any counterparts in German, exactly
expressed, counterparts of which I failed to find. This table is the less extensive one.

There is not only one possibility how to interpret an English idiom in the German language
and vice versa. For example the meaning of the English utterance He has bats in the belfry.
can be expressed in German as Er hat einen Vogel / eine Meise / einen Sparren. Bei ihm ist
eine Schraube locker. Er tickt nicht richtig.

The range of animal idioms is quite wide and not all can be introduced in the above
mentioned tables. I have chosen those English idioms that caught my attention and pleased
me in some way and left out those without any reasonable counterparts in German. The lexis
of the idioms was the main clue to their division into the three above mentioned groups,
despite if they are clause or phrase idioms.

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 5.1 Analogous idioms

like a bear with a sore head ein richtiger Brummbär sein

to be in a bad mood that causes you to treat Schimpfwort für eine unfreundliche, mürrische
other people badly a complain a lot männliche Person
být starý mrzout, starý bručoun
to be as hungry as a bear hungrig wie ein Bär / Wolf sein

to be very hungry

mít hlad jako vlk

Both above mentioned idioms imply the idea about a bear as a dangerous animal when it is
in bad mood, no matter what the reason is. The feeling of fear is connected with the huge
figure of a bear. Also a human being can be dangerous in his attempt to satisfy his needs and
well-being.

to be as busy as a bee fleißig wie eine Biene sein

to be very busy or very active

být pilný jako včelička
to make a bee-line for something eine Biene machen / drehen

hurry towards something taking sich schnell und unbemerkt entfernen

the quickest and most direct way
zmizet rovnou čarou, vypařit se
The bee is a symbol of hard working animals in English, German as well as in Czech. The
second idiom depicts the fast movement which the bees have to do to manage their work
although the German and Czech counterparts express that a person wishes to escape quickly
from an unpleasant situation.

to be a rare bird ein komischer / seltener Vogel sein

to be a person who is unusual and seldom seen

být povedený pták
to tell about birds and bees über Blumen und Bienen lernen

basic fact about sex and reproduction told to children

a Czech equivalent was not found
to be a bird of a passage ein Zugvogel sein

to be a person who does not stay in a place very long

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the bird has flown der Vogel ist ausgeflogen

The person who has being chased or locked for has escaped or gone away.
ptáček ulít
The bird is used to characterize an unsettled and unreliable person who likes to change his
surrounding, cannot be seen very often and makes a mysterious impression like a bird that we
seldom can catch with the hand and watch closely. This idiom is semi-transparent.

to be like a red rag to a bull wie ein rotes Tuch auf den Stier wirken

a thing / situation that makes people angry or even violent

působit jako rudý hadr na býka
to take the bull by the horns den Stier bei den Hörnen packen

to deal with a difficult situation in a direct and brave way instead of avoiding it
chytit býka za rohy
The bull symbolizes an animal that can be dangerous if treated badly. A person has to be
courageous to deal with it and also to tell unpleasant things directly. These idioms advise to
be careful and brave at the same time. The first one is more intelligible than the second one.

to have butterflies in the stomach Schmetterlinge im Bauch haben /

Lampenfieber haben
to have a nervous feeling in your stomach before doing something
být nervózní
Butterflies imply the imagination of an unpleasant feeling in the stomach when a person is
trembling like wings of a butterfly before a situation which makes him nervous. The German
version Lampenfieber haben depicts an actor on the stage who is nervous before his
performance. These idioms are opaque.

to play a cat and mouse mit jemandem Katze und Maus spielen
to keep somebody in state of uncertainty
hrát si s někým jako kočka s myší
to lead a cat and dog life wie Hund und Katze leben
to lead a life of frequent quarelling
žít jako kočka a pes
to let the cat out of the bag die Katze aus dem Sack lassen
reveal a secret , usually unknowingly or unintentionally
zveřejnit něco dosud tajného
when the cat’s away, the mice will play Wenn die Katze aus dem Haus ist,
tanzen die Mäuse.
Whe the person with the power is absent, the other people can do as they like.
Když kocour není doma, myši mají pré.
Except the idiom to let the cat out of the bag there are analogical idioms in English, German
and Czech which start from observing of the relationship between cats and mice and between
cats and dogs and for that reason are the idioms semi-transparent.

24
to be a sacred cow eine heilige Kuh sein/ nein Tabu

a person, belief or institution that people respect and never criticize

být posvátná kráva

This idiom has its origin in Indian religion where the cow cannot be killed and enjoys
privileges like prominent people.

to weep crocodile tears Krokodilstränen weinen

an insincere show of sedness / sorrow

ronit krokodýlí slzy

In the Middle Ages people believed that the crocodiles lay in the river, cried as small
children and lured their victims this way. Crocodile tears wept by people have to deceive the
others and their aim may be to gain some advantages.

to run around like a headless chicken herumlaufen wie ein Huhn, das ein Ei legen
will und weiß nicht wo
to be very active but not very organized

bezcílně pobíhat
Both the English and the German idiom denote a disorganized activity but the English one can
be found a bit morbid if you imagine that a chicken is able to run for a while after its head is
cut off.

barking dogs seldom bite Hunde, die bellen, beißen nicht

People who threaten you rarely take action.

Pes, který štěká, nekouše.

a dirty dog ein gemeiner Hund

a low and sneaky person

podlý pes
You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Man kann einem alten Hund keine neuen
Tricks beibringen.
Old people find difficult to live in accordance with new ideas.

Starého psa novým kouskům nenaučíš.

It rains cats and dogs. Es regnet junge Hunde

It rains very heavily.

Leje jako z konve.

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Give a dog a bad name and hang him. Von ihm nimmt kein Hund ein Stück Brot.

When a person already has a bad reputation, it is difficult to change because others will
Continue to blame him or suspect him.
Pes by od něho kůrku nevzal.
Let sleeping dogs lie. Schlafende Hunde soll man nicht wecken.

Do not disturb a situation which could cause troubles.

Nedráždi hada bosou nohou.

Although the dog is people’s best friend, all above mentioned idioms connect the dog with a
bad situation or with a dishonest person and warn us not to treat dogs badly, not to cause
unnecessary troubles, which could turn against us like a irritated dog.

a lame duck eine lahme Ente

a person or organisation that is weak or failure in some way ( needs help to survive)

a Czech equivalent was not found

a dead duck eine tote Ente

a plan, idea etc. that has been abandoned or is certain to fail

mrtvě narozené dítě

Both idioms imply an imagination of an animal which has difficulties with walking likewise
week persons or bad ideas have to struggle to survive. The second idiom offers even less
chance to succeed. This idioms are opque.

to be like water of a duck’s back an jemandem ablaufen wie das Wasser am

Entenflügel / an der Gans
to have no effect, be indifferent to

Sjede to po něm jako voda po huse.

Water cannot get to the skin of a duck and harm it because of its greasy feather. A person can
be also ’’waterproof’’ when they do not listen to good advice, mostly deliberately. This
example can be understood as semi-opaque.

to have eagle eyes Adleraugen haben

to watch things carefully and be good at noticing things

sledovat ostřížím zrakem

All three languages compare a carefully watching person with an eagle, which can see the
slightest movement on the earth. This idiom imply the notion that the watched object has
been controlled and criticized.

26
to back the wrong horse auf falsches Pferd setzen

support the person that falls to do what was expected

sázet na špatného koně

hold your horses immer langsam mit den jungen Pferden /
keine Hast
to ask somebody to speak slowly / to stop for e moment / to be patient

držet na uzdě, nic neuspěchat

not to look a gift-horse in the mouth Dem geschenkten Gaul sieht man nicht in den
Maul.
to show dissatisfaction or find fault with a gift or help that is freely offered

Darovanému koni na zuby nekoukej.

to change horses in midstream Mitten im Strom / im Fluss / im Rennen Pferde
wechseln
to change one’s view and attitude half-way through something / change sides

obrátit na čtyráku / změnit své smýšlení

wild horses couldn’t drag somebody there keine zehn Pferde bringen jemanden dahin /
/ couldn’t drag it out of somebody dazu
nothing would make somebody to go somewhere or to do something

Ani párem koní mě tam nedostanou.

A horse symbolizes a wild and strong animal and these are the features contained in the
idioms of the three dealt languages. One can use the strength or resist it. Moreover, a young
and healthy horse has perfect tooth and is worth to posses it but sometimes one gets an
unwanted gift with imperfections - a horse with bad tooth. In these case, he should not
examine the present closely and be satisfied with it.

to put the cart before the horse das Pferd beim Schwanz aufzäumen /
den Karren vor den Ochsen spannen
to do things in the wrong order

sedlat koně od ocasu

In this case, the German idiom has two versions. One is identical with the English one and the
other with the Czech idiom. Both denote a wrong activity which indicates bad knowledge of
doing things.

to watch somebody / something like a etwas wie ein Habicht beobachten

hawk

to observe very closely and carefully

pozorovat něco jestřábím / sokolím zrakem

The meaning of this idiom is identical with the idiom to have eagle eyes.

27
to put the head in the lion’s mouth den Kopf in den Rachen des Löwen stecken

deliberately put yourself in a dangerous situation

strkat hlavu do lví tlamy

According to this idiom people sometimes put themselves on risk deliberately and hope that
they can be lucky and take some advantage of doing a risky activity. We know from the circus
how risky these activity is and that’s why this idiom may be semi-opaque.

monkey business jemanden zum Narren / Affen machen / halten /

täuschen, veralbern, betrügen
unacceptable, dishonest behaviour

dělat z někoho vola

In comparison with the English and the German idiom, Czech uses a different animal, the ox,
which is considered to be stupid and easy to deceive and to treat badly. Whereas the English
idiom denotes the subject, the German and Czech idioms express the object of dishonest
behaviour.

monkey see, monkey do der Affe sieht, der Affe macht / nachäffen

People learn their behaviour by copying what they see happening around them without an
understanding of why it works.
opičit se
The utterance monkey see, monkey do can have both a positive and a negative meaning. Small
children have to imitate the things which they can see and hear in their environment to get
ahead. Grown- ups may be foolish when they try to copy what they see like an ape that cannot
reach the perfection of its human model.

to be stubborn as a mule stur wie ein Esel / ein Bock

hartnäckig / störrisch wie ein Maulesel
to be very obstinate

být tvrdohlavý jako mezek

Similar to the previous idiom, to be stubborn as a mule can be perceived positively as well as
negatively. If you have a good knowledge of your aim and of the ways which lead to the aim
the stubbornness of a mule helps you to reach the target. On the other hand, if you know only
a little about things and are deaf to good advice, you are likely to fail.

to be poor as a church mouse arm wie eine Kirchenmaus sein

very poor

být chudý jak kostelní myš

We can assume that in a church there is nothing to eat and so the mice living in a church
suffer from hunger and they are cold unlike the mice staying in a proper house. So do the
people without proper background.

28
to be quiet as a mouse
Mäuschen still sein

to say very little or to make very little noise

být tichý jako myška

A person can be quiet as a mouse for several reasons. Firstly, he does not want to disturb
other people, secondly, he wants to hide his activities and thirdly he is shy or does not know
what to speak about. The mouse’s reason is the second one. The more quiet the mouse is the
bigger its chance to survive is. The idiom is semi-transparent

to be like a moth to a flame wie die Motte vom Licht angezogen sein

to be attracted to something that is deadly or dangerous

být přitahován něčím jako můra světlem

The moth is attracted to a flame although the heat may cause its death but it cannot help doing
it . Sometimes people are attracted by dangerous activities where they can be hurt or they
adore people who are not worth any attention. This idiom is quite opaque.

to be strong as an ox stark wie ein Stier sein

to be exceedingly strong physically

být silný jako býk

An ox is considered to be a big and strong animal which is able to work hard, move heavy
things and also fight in a bullring. A person who is strong as an ox has strong muscles and is
expected to show and use them .This idiom is semi-transparent.

29
a snake in the grass eine Schlange / Natter am Busen nähren

a person who appears friendly but is deceitful and dangerous

hřát si hada na prsou
All three languages compare a dangerous person with a snake, but there are also differences.
The English snake is only lying in the grass and it can be deadly to stand on it. The German
snake has been breastfed and the Czech one kept warm on the breast, which shows a positive
attitude of the subject towards the object, towards the snake, in spite that it is obviously quite
risky.

packed like sardines wie die Sardinen in der Büchse

very closely together because there is not enough space

namačkaní jako sardinky
After opening a tin of sardines you can see them lying close together and so is the imagination
of a lot of people in a small room in the three mentioned languages. The people do not feel
comfortable, they sweat, can hardly breath and they wish to escape. This idiom is semi-
transparent.

one swallow does not make a summer eine Schwalbe macht noch keinen Sommer

It is unwise to form a general judgment on the basis of a single event.

Jedna vlaštovička jaro nedělá.
Even if the first swallow appears after a long winter, it does not mean that the spring is
coming. Everything can be changed and the first blossom can freeze and our expectation can
be disappointed. It is better to wait until you have more evidence about the real state of things.
It is semi-opaque.

to cast pearls before swine Perlen vor die Säue werfen

to waste something valuable on somebody who cannot appreciate it

házet perly sviním

This is an utterance from the bible used in many languages. Swine as well as stupid and
ignorant people are not able to appreciate anything beautiful and valuable. In the human
environment valuable information and advice are mostly meant. This idiom needs explanation
so it is opaque.

a wolf in sheep’s clothing ein Wolf im Schafspelz

a person who appears friendly and nice but is really dangerous

vlk v rouše beránčím

This idiom underlines the different features of a sheep and of a wolf. The sheep is considered
to be a nice and friendly animal people like to deal with. Whereas the wolf is aggressive and
sly and so are many people who pretend to be kind to gain the access to other people and to
reach their goals. This idiom may be marked as opaque.

30
 In the table of analogous idioms there are 50 examples. 52% of them are clause idioms
which require a verb to be understood both in English and in German e.g. change horses in
midstream / mitten im Rennen Pferde wechseln and 48 % represent phrase idioms e.g. monkey
business.

As far as the degree of semantic transparency is concerned, there are 2 transparent idioms
comprehensible without any farther explanation, e.g. to be as busy as a bee / fleißig wie eine
Biene, 5 semi-transparent idioms which can be understood both literarily and figuratively, e.g.
take the bull by the horns / den Stier bei den Hörnern packen and 20 semi-opaque idioms the
meaning of which is quite unintelligible e.g. like a bear with a sore head / ein richtiger
Brummbär. People’s imagination about those bears can differ and so it is desirable to know
the real meaning of above mentioned idioms to avoid misunderstanding. Among analogous
idioms in the first table there are also 23 opaque idioms the meaning of which has to be
learned by heart. Hardly anyone can imagine what a swan song or a monkey business have to
do with people’s behaviour or appearance and that’s why it is important to know what opaque
idioms depict.

Comparing English and German idioms we can assume that their structure is mostly the
same e.g. stubborn as a mule / stur wie ein Esel are adjective phrases whereas put the head in
the lion’s mouth / den Kopf in den Rachen des Löwen stecken fulfill the clause pattern: verb-
direct object – complement.

The compared English and German idioms are not always equally transparent although they
describe the same object or situation. The utterance tell about birds and bees can be
considered as opaque in English and its German counterpart über Blumen und Bienen lernen
seems to be semi-opaque because the connection between flowers and bees is more
intelligible and exemplifies the importance of bees for the fertilisation of flowers – hence sex
matters - better then the English idiom does. In many cases, it is not easy to draw a line
between semi-transparent and semi-opaque idioms. The classification depends on author’s
knowledge and imagination.

To sum up, more the 80% of analogue idioms describing people’s behaviour or appearance
can be intelligible if we engage our fantasy because we know how animals are acting and we
are able to apply their behaviour to human’s activities.

31
 5.2 Slightly modified idioms

to have ants in the pants Hummeln im Hintern haben

to be restless because you are excited about something, be nervous

mít roupy
All three idioms contain an animal whose presence and movement on the human body cause
an unpleasant feeling and one is made to fidget. In English there are ants, in German
bumblebees and in Czech seat-worms. Nervous or excited people make a similar fidgety
movement. This idiom is semi-opaque.

to be blind as a bat blind wie ein Maulwurf sein

not be able to see well

slepý jako krtek / patrona

A person who is not able to see well is compared with a bat or with a mole – with animals
which do not use their eyesight because they live in darkness. This comparison is a bit
exaggerated because the person is not actually blind. It is semi-opaque.

einen Vogel / eine Meise haben

to have bats in the belfry
to have strange ideas / to be slightly mad
Straší mu ve věži. / být hloupý
The utterance about madness caused by bats (in English) or by a bird (in German) goes back
to the old superstition that mental illnesses are caused by animals who nest in the human
brain. The utterance is quite unintelligible. The Czech idiom does not use any animal.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the Ein Spatz in der Hand ist besser als eine Taube
bush. auf dem Dach.

It is better to be satisfied with what you have than to lose it trying to get something more.
Lepší vrabec v hrsti než holub na střeše.
The idiom about a bird (in English) and about a sparrow (in German and Czech) wants to
learn people to be modest and satisfied with things they have and not put them at risk for
unachievable goals. On the other hand, this advice can have a bad impact because it
discourages people to fight for something better.

to eat like a bird wie ein Spatz essen

to eat very little

jíst jako vrabec

32
In the English idiom a bird denotes a person who eats very little. We do not know what kind
of bird it is and how big it is. We can imagine any kind of bird. German and Czech idioms
specify the bird and speak about a sparrow, which is more precise and evokes an animal
which is really small and does not need to eat much. We can also guess the reason why a
person eats like a bird.

to kill two birds with one stone zwei Fliegen mit einer Klappe schlagen

to manage to achieve two aims by doing one thing

zabít dvě mouchy jednou ranou

The German and English utterances seem to be more logical than the English one. Flies are
relatively small and you can hit two flies sitting close to each other with one blow. But if you
killed a bird with one stone, the other would fly away unless you throw a piece of rock. These
idioms can be understood both literally and figuratively and are semi-opaque.

to be like a bull in a china shop sich wie ein Elefant im Porzellanladen

benehmen

to be very clumsy , especially in the situation where you need to be careful

být jako slon v porcelánu

A person destroying his surroundings, hurting people and talking nonsens has been compared
with a bull (English) or with a elephant (German) in a china shop which is not able to see the
damage he causes . These animal may destroy things because of their huge body whereas a
person causes demage because of his bad knowledge or behaviour, seldom because of his
large size. We can easily imagine how big the damage may be and so the idioms are semi-
opaque.

33
to trust the cat to keep the cream den Bock zum Gärtner machen

to trust a dishonest , unreliable person

udělat kozla zahradníkem

It is believed that a person who committed a crime or did something less acceptable seldom
can become better and should not be trusted. A cat can hardly keep the cream (English) and a
billy goat is not able to take care of a garden (German) because their natural instincts force
them to eat it. On the other hand a deliberately arranged situation may be a moral ordeal for a
person who tries to get better and to resist his temptation. Also his mates expect him to
become a better person. These idioms are used only figuratively and are opaque.

dogs don’t eat dogs. Eine Krähe hackt der anderen kein Auge aus.

one does not harm one’s own kind

Vrána vráně oči nevyklove.

The people of the same status do not hurt each other. They stitch together to protect their
interests. German as well as Czech illustrate the solidarity and togetherness using a flock of
crows whereas English depicts the tight relationship among dogs. Both utterances are opaque.

dressed up like a dog’s dinner herausgeputzt wie der Pfingstochse /

Zirkuspferd
dressed smartly or ostentatiously

oblečený jak do rakve / přehnaně upravený

The German idiom goes back to an old tradition in south Germany. At Whitsun the cattle
went to the pasture after the winter and one of the oxen was decorated with flowers and
ribbons to look nice and to greet to spring. The English idiom has a slightly different
meaning, it implies a negative imagination of an untidy dressed person whereas the Czech one
depicts a dead person in a coffin wearing his best clothes. Neither of the idioms can be
understood without explanation for that reason they are opaque.

like a duck to water wie Fisch im Wasser

naturally and without any difficulty

jako ryba ve vodě

Like many idioms also this one shows the closeness between German and Czech. Both
languages speak about a fish in water which does not have any difficulties to conduct its
things. In English a duck symbolizes a person who knows how to manage the tasks and not to
get drowned in everyday problems. This idioms can be considered to be opaque.

34
to send somebody off with a flea in the ear jemanden wie einen begossenen Pudel
abziehen lassen
to refuse somebody’s request, tell them angrily to go away

odtáhnout jako spráskaný pes

People asking for help or information may feel uncomfortable when they are refused. This
situation can be expressed figuratively. A flea in the ear evokes an uncomfortable feeling as
well as a wet poodle or a beaten up dog. The latter mentioned are more realistic than the
English one and can be understood both literally and figuratively.

to be a fly on the wall bei etwas Mäuschen spielen

to be able to see and hear events as they happen

Chtěl bych být myškou a někoho tajně pozorovat .

Sometimes we wish to listen to utterances that should not reach our ears, because the speakers
do not wish so. A small quiet fly or mouse are able to spy and to gain secret information. All
three idioms are figurative and opaque.

to kill the goose that lays golden eggs das Huhn, das goldene Eier legt, schlachten

to destroy the thing that provides you with money, success etc. because you do not realize
what you are doing
zabít slepici, která nese zlatá vejce
The meaning of this idiom is based on a fable by Jean de Fontaine where a hen laying golden
eggs is killed by its owner because he believes that there is a treasure inside the hen. English
replaced the hen with a goose. Generally, this idiom depicts a bad decision and an act of
stupidity. It is opaque.

If wishes were horses, the beggars would Hätte der Hund nicht gekackt, hätte er den
ride. / If wishes were fishes, we’d all swim Hasen gepackt.
in riches.
It is useless to wish, better results will be achieved through action.

Kdyby byly v řiti ryby, nebylo by třeba rybníka.

These proverbs imply either a failed action or the inability to act. They may be understood as
criticism about lack of strong will and considered to be opaque.

to rise with the lark mit den Hühnern aufstehen

to get up early in the morning

vstávat se slepicemi
The Czech and German early riser has been compared with hens which are used to getting up
early in the morning and want to be let out from henhouse. In English a lark denotes an early
riser, which is semi-opaque. To rise with the lark denotes a positive human feature, an
opposite of laziness.

35
to buy a pig in a poke eine Katze im Sack kaufen

to pay for something without seeing it or examining it carefully first

kupovat kočku v pytli

It does not matter if you buy a pig or a cat in a poke, you always buy things without first
finding out if they are good and you may experience an unpleasant surprise. This utterance is
semi-opaque and is connected with trading on the market in the old days where a useless cat
in a poke could be sold to an inattentive customer instead of a piglet or a rabbit.

a guinea - pig das Versuchskaninchen

a person who is used as a subject in medical or other experiments

pokusný králík
A person can be said to be an experimental animal similar as a guinea pig or a rabbit. Mostly
they are manipulated by others without knowing it. There is a danger that the experiment may
be unsuccessful and end with a disaster. The phrasal idiom is semi-transparent.

to live like a pig in clover wie die Made im Käse / im Speck leben // wie
Gott in Frankreich leben
to live very comfortable having plenty of money

žít si jako prase v žitě

It is said that people who have more that they need live like a pig in clover or a worm in
cheese. These idioms can be marked as semi-transparent because our experience indicate their
meaning.

to smell a rat Mäuse merken / riechen

to detect something suspicious / sense that something is wrong or someone is trying to

deceive one
něco není v pořádku / ta věc smrdí
The opaque idiom denotes that something is wrong e.g. someone wants to deceive you or you
may be caught doing something wrong. In German you can smell or see mice instead of a rat,
which is less impressive than the English counterpart. The Czech counterpart utters that the
thing stinks.

to have a skin like a rhinoceros eine dicke Haut wie ein Elefant haben

to be tough and not easily offended / to have no fear of criticism from others

mít hroší kůži

People who are said to have a skin like a rhinoceros or an elephant are not sympathetic and
can hardly be concerned by the outside world. They recover from their disasters very quickly.
These idioms can be thought to be semi-opaque. Using our imagination we can guess their
meaning.

36
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a Auch ein blindes Huhn findet mal ein Korn.
while.

Even an unable person can be successful sometimes.

Přišel k tomu jako slepé kuře k zrnu / jako slepý k houslím.

This idiom speaking about an unable person who can be successful sometimes is semi-opaque. We
may need some explanation to understand the meaning.

The second table contains 22 slightly modified English and German idioms describing
human behaviour but using different animal names in English and German. 17 of these idioms
are clause idioms, 5 are phrase idioms and nearly 96% are semi-opaque or opaque. 50% of
slightly modified can be used both literally and figuratively. The animals uttered in the idioms
have very often the same qualities although their appearance differs e.g. rise with the lark in
English and mit den Hühnern aufstehen. Both birds are known as early risers although they
look different. Another similar examples may be blind as a bat and blind wie ein Maulwurf,
both animals do not use their eyes very much but their other features have nothing in
common. People who cannot be easily offended have the skin like a rhinoceros (in English) or
like an elephant (in German).

Some idioms denoting the same situation contain animals of quite different qualities e.g.
buy a pig in a poke and eine Katze im Sack kaufen.

Analogous to the firs table, there are only slight differences in structure and transparency
between English and German idioms.

Comparing the Czech counterparts of English and Germen idioms, we can find out that the
Czech idioms use mostly the same animal name like the German ones e.g. trust the cat to keep
the cream / den Bock zum Gärtner machen / udělat kozla zahradníkem or dog’s ears /
Eselsohren / oslí uši. Doubtless, it is caused due to tighter contact between Czech and German
during the centries.

37
 5.3 Functionally equivalent idioms

like a bat out of hell wie ein geölter Blitz

very quickly

jak namydlený blesk

In this case the tight connection between German and Czech can be seen again. A fast
movement has been illustrated with the movement of a lightning. English speaks about a
frightened bat escaping from the hell. The meaning is quite intelligible and the idioms are
semi-transparent.

to fly like bees round honey pot wie Motten ums Licht fliegen

to be attracted to something or somebody

být přitahován něčím / někým jako můra světlem

Everyone can imagine how much bees by a honey pot and moths by a lamp are attracted
although it can be deadly for them. People are also attracted by things which they should
resist but sometimes they cannot help. The idioms can be considered to be semi-transparent.

Birds of feather flock together Gleich und gleich gesellt sich gern.

similar people attract each other

Vrána k vráně sedá, rovný rovného si hledá.

The most precise idiom is the Czech one because there is a specific kind of birds – crows
which flock together. The word birds is less precise we can imagine any kind of birds. The
German idiom is vague. We do not know what kind of things or animals flock together. The
meaning of this idiom needs some explanation and that’s why it is semi-opaque.

the last straw that breaks the camel’s back der Tropfen, der das Fass zum Überlaufen
bringt /Der Krug geht so lange zum Brunnen
bis er bricht.
something bad that happens to a person after a series of other bad things with the result that
one cannot continue

poslední kapka, kterou přeteče pohár / Tak dlouho se chodí se džbánem pro vodu, až se
ucho utrhne.
Repeated human activities can reach a point where the situation changes radically, the animals
are exhausted and the things worn out and cannot fulfil their usual function. The English
idiom needs some explanation to be used properly so it is semi-opaque whereas the German
and Czech ones are semi-transparent.

38
to grin / smile like a Cheshire cat bis über beide Ohren grinse / grinsen wie ein
Honigkuchen
to smile widely / in such a way that one shows all one’s teeth

smát se od ucha k uchu

Look what the cat’s dragged in. Sieh mal, wer da kommt. / aussehen wie eine
Vogelscheuche / wie unter die Räuber gefallen
An expression used when somebody who looks very dirty, untidy comes into a room.

vypadat jak strašák – an exact Czech counterpart was not found

Has the cat got your tongu ? Die Angst hat ihm die Zunge gelähmt. / die
Sprache verlieren
said to a person who feels uncomfortable in unfamiliar surroundings and is silent through
fear or timidity.
Strach mu ochromil jazyk. /spolknout jazyk
The three above mentioned idioms containing the word cat are rather opaque and require
explanation to be understood and used properly.

to feel like a cat that got the cream sich freuen wie ein Schneekönig /
selbstzufrieden sein
to be very pleased or satisfied

být velmi spokojen

The meaning of the English idiom is quite intelligible and that’s why it is transparent. The
German one is unintelligible and opaque and needs explanation. Schneekönig is a bird that does
not fly to the south in winter and sings nice and loud. His singing is considered to be an expression of joy
(Duden – Redewendungen 236).

not count your chickens before they Man sollte die Haut nicht verkaufen, eher man
hatched den Bären gefangen hat.
Nechval dne před večerem. / Neříkej hop, dokud nepřeskočíš.

According to this idiom rash conclusions should not be done. It is reasonable to wait and to
judge according to the real result. All three idioms are unintelligible and require explanation
to be understood, they are opaque.

a cook and bull story Lügengeschichten erzählen / Lügenmärchen

auftischen
a story / excuse / explanation that is so unlikely that no one believes it

vyprávět pohádky
This idiom is rather opaque and its meaning has to be learned by heart to use it in an adequate
way.

39
Every dog has its day. Jeder hat einmal Glück im Leben.

Everybody will, at some time in their life, be successful or lucky.

Každý má jednou štěstí. Když se štěstí unaví, sedne i na vola. - The meaning is not exact
the same.
In German and Czech there are not idioms with the meaning every dog has its day The
English idiom is opaque, it does not give any characteristic of the dog – if it is lucky or
unlucky. The meaning of this idiom is to be learned by heart to use it in the right situation.

There is life in the old dog. Noch kann man ihn nicht zum alten Eisen
werfen.
The person is old but is still active.

Ještě nepatří do starého železa.

Even an elderly person can be vital, manage many activities and does not belong to the old
iron as the German idiom says. The idioms are semi-opaque, we can imagine how the things
work.

a dog in the manger Neidhammel, Spielverderber

someone who prevents others from using or profiting from something even though he cannot
use it himself
žába na prameni
All three idioms depict a person who prevents others from using and enjoying things and
envies. The Oxford idioms dictionary says :
This expression comes from Aesop’s fable about a dog which lay in a manger….filled with hay. In this way he
stopped the others animals eating the hay, even though he could not eat it himself (Oxford Idioms Dictionary
92).

to be in the doghouse in Ungnade sein

to be in disgrace and very unpopular

být v nemilosti
In the doghouse may be a dog or figuratively a person who has been scolded for something
bad. The English utterance is rather opaque. In German and Czech there are not adequate
idioms. The situation has been described with other words.

to talk the hind legs off a donkey jemandem ein Loch / ein Kind in den Bauch
reden / jemandem ein Ohr abquatschen
to talk for a long time

mluvit dlouho / do úmoru

The English, German as well as the Czech idioms are opaque and have to be learned by
heart. We cannot guess their meaning.

40
a sitting duck leichte Beute / wehrloses Opfer

a person or an object in a vulnerable position that is easy to attack or criticise, an easy target

snadná kořist
A sitting duck (English) is an easy quarry (German and Czech) because it does not move and
is easy to catch or shoot. The application of this utterance to a person is unintelligible hence
more opaque that its German and Czech counterparts.

to drink like a fish trinken / saufen wie ein Loch / wie ein
Schlauch / wie ein Fass / wie das liebe Vieh
to be accustomed to drinking a great deal of alcohol

pít jak duha

The utterance about a drinking fish is quite arguable. The imagination of drinking cattle is
more realistic but hardly one would connect drinking with alcohol. For that reason the idioms
are semi-opaque. The German idioms name also inanimate things which drink – hole, barrel
and hose.

to be a fly in the ointment Sand im Getriebe sein / ein Wermutstropfen im

Becher der Freude sein
something unpleasant which spoils total satisfaction or enjoyment

být jedinou vadou na kráse

All three subjects uttered in these idioms – fly, sand and drop, are rather small but in spite of
that they are able to spoil much bigger things. We can easily imagine the three above
mentioned situations and so the idioms can be marked as semi-transparent.

to get somebody’s goat jemanden auf die Palme bringen

annoy somebody very much

někoho velmi rozčílit

to cook someone’s goose jemandem den Strich durch die Rechnung
machen / jemandem die Suppe versalzen
to spoil someone’s plans / success / chances

udělat někomu čáru přes rozpočet

Except the idiom jemandem dem Strich über die Rechnung machen, the other utterances are
unintelligible and cannot be understood without explanation. They are opaque and it is
necessary to learn their meaning by heart to avoid misunderstanding.

41
red herring falsche Spur / Ablenkungsmanöver

something that draws attention away from the matter being discussed or dealt with

falešná stopa
The meaning of the German and Czech idioms differs slightly from the English one which is
opaque. According to the Oxford Idioms Dictionary (hereafter abbrev. OID) this idiom comes
from the custom of using the scent of a smoked, dried herring (which was red) to train dogs to hunt (OID
320).

to eat like a horse wie ein Scheunendrescher fressen

to eat very large quantities of food

cpát se jako nezavřený

English compares a person who eats much with a horse whereas the German idiom speaks
about a machine - about a combine harvester, which is able to process a lot of corn. The
English idiom is semi-transparent as nearly every small child knows a horse and its habits but
not everyone has any notion of that agricultural machine,which makes the idiom semi-opaque.

to flog a dead horse auf einen toten Gaul dreschen / tote Pferde
satteln
to attempt to get more out of something that cannot give more

ztrácet čas marným snažením

Whether a dead horse has been flogged or saddled, the result is the same. Where nothing is
but the death or emptiness, there cannot be reached any success. Both the English and German
idioms are semi-opaque. There is not a suitable Czech counterpart.

from the horse’s mouth aus der ersten Hand / direkt von der Quelle

information directly from the person who knows most about a matter or who has the
authority to give information about the matter
informace z první ruky / přímo od pramene
The OID utters that this idiom may come from horse racing and the humorous suggestion that you had heard
from the horse itself whether it would win the race (OID 186).

to close the stable door after the horse has den Brunnen erst zudecken, wenn das Kind
bolted hineingefallen ist
to take action to prevent something bad from happening after it has already happened

přijít s křížkem po funuse

The three above mentioned idioms can be market as semi-opaque. If we engage our fantasy,
we can understand the meaning but it may also need some interpretation so as not to be
mistaken. Every of these three languages depicts different circumstances the result of which is
the same – a late taken action.

42
to be a sprat to catch a mackerel mit dem Wurst nach dem Schinken / nach der
Speckseite werfen
an unimportant thing which is offered in the hope of getting something better

být návnadou
The English idiom is more comprehensible than the German one because it describes a well
known activity of a fisherman. Considering the German idiom, you can hardly find an
explanation for the mentioned activity. For that reason the idiom is opaque.

The world is you oyster. Die Welt ist dein Schmuckkästchen. / die
Welt liegt dir zu Füssen.
You have the freedom to do what you want because you are young.

Svět ti leží u nohou.

The German and Czech utterances about the world lying at somone’s feet are semi-opaque.
The other two are opaque. We can hardly guess their meaning without father explanation.

That’s not my pigeon. Das ist nicht mein Bier.

That’s not my responsibility / my concern.

To není moje věc.

Both the English idiom and the German one can be understood literally as well as
figuratively. The figurative meaning is rather opaque. The Czech idiom utters clearly that
something is not someone’s matter.

the rat race Ellenbogenmentalität – seine Ellbogen

gebrauchen/ Rattenrennen
an intense competition for success in job / business

tvrdý konkurenční boj

The hard competition has been characterised as an unscrupulous fight mostly among the
colleagues at work. We can imagine people who use their elbows to get forward, that’s why
this German idiom is semi-opaque. The English one is opaque and can be understood literally
as well as figuratively.

a stag party / night Herrenabend

a hen party / night Damenkränzchen
a social evening for men / women only where women / men are not invited , often hold
before a wedding
pánská / dámská jízda,
In this case the English idioms are opaque and their counterparts are semi-transparent.
Comparing the usage of the words stag and hen we can get the notion that women have been
appreciated less than men because a stag is a graceful animal whereas a hen has been
considered to be a small stupid animal which can only cackle.

43
to keep the wolf from the door sich übers Wasser halten

to make sure that you have enough money to pay for the basic things

držet se nad vodou

The aim of the both activities is to make the ends meet although it is quite exhausting. The
idioms are semi-opaque, they express the effort to prevent something wrong but their
connection with money is not obvious.

The table of functionally equivalent idioms contains 31 examples which denote the same
situation or behaviour but German idioms do not use animal names to depict the same
circumstances e.g. birds of feather flock together and the German idiom Gleich und Gleich
gesellt sich gern / vrána k vráně sedá or a lucky dog and Glückspilz / šťstlivec. As we can
see, the Czech counterparts apply neither the German nor the English patterns. It may be
drawn the conclusion that the functionally equivalent idioms are the most tricky and need
careful attention to avoid misunderstanding, which the numbers show - 61% of those
idioms are opaque and 61% of them can be used both literary and figuratively.

5.4 Idioms without counterparts

Curiosity killed the cat. Sei nicht so neugierig.

An utterance used to tell somebody not to ask so many questions, especially in reply to a
question that you do not want to answer.
Nebuď zvědavý, budeš brzo starý.
to run around like a scalded cat kopflos herumlaufen

to run around in a very busy and excited way

bezhlavě pobíhat kolem

There is no room to swing a cat. Man kann sich nicht einmal umdrehen. /
beengte Platzverhältnisse
There is very little physical room to move about.

Není tady k hnutí.

to be the cat’s whiskers / pyjamas Spitze sein , großartig / affengeil sein

to be the best person, idea or thing – often ironic

být jednička / špice / nepřekonatelný

The above mentioned idioms containing the word cat can be used only figuratively and are
opaque without any German counterparts.

44
chicken come home to roost auf den Urheber zurückschlagen / das Bad
austrinken
After a long time you experience the unpleasant effects of something bad that you have
done in the past.
vypít si něco
The English idiom is rather illegible and can be used only figuratively. The German das Bad
austrinken cannot be understood without explanation as well. The Czech alternative may be
used both literally and figuratively.

chicken-and-egg situation ein Dilemma was war früher, die Henne oder
das Ei
a situation in which you do not know which of two connected events is the cause of the other

Co bylo dřív – vejce nebo slepice ?

There is a paraphrase in German and Czech for the English chicken –and-egg situation. The
dilemma uttered in the idiom is generally known and for that reason the idiom can be
considered to be semi-transparent.

dog eats dog ein Kampf allen gegen alle

fierce competition, with no concern for the harm done to other people’s feelings

nelítostný konkurenční boj

The meaning of this idiom can be compared with rat race. Maybe, dog eats dog makes a
more aggressive impact and indicates a damage. Depicting the relationship among people, It
can be classified as semi-opaque.

a dog’s breakfast / dinner Schlamassel / Missgeschick / total verpfuschte

Arbeit
very untidy piece of work, a mess

zfušovaná / odbytá práce

the hair of the dog that bit you ein Schluck von Alkohol um einen Kater zu
vertreiben
an alcoholic drink taken in the morning in order to help cure the unpleasant effect of
drinking much alcohol the night before
vyprošťovák
a shaggy-dog story eine breitgewalzte Geschichte mit schwacher
Pointe
a long complicated story or joke which has no proper ending and is not very funny

nezáživný příběh
The three above mentioned idioms containing the word dog are illegible and therefore
opaque. It is necessary to learn their meaning by heart to understand and use them in the right
way. The German variants are semi-transparent, which means that they contain constituent
elements which require some explanation. As far as Czech is concerned, only the word
vyprošťovák may not be generally known.

45
a white elephant hohe Kosten verursachender Besitz / lästiger
Besitz / Fehlinvestition
something expensive but useless and unwanted

drahý, nepotřebný majetek / nevýhodná investice

There are not adequate idioms in Czech and German, the meaning needs to be explained wit
other words. According to OID this comes from the story that in Siam, the king would give a white
elephant as a present to somebody that he did not like. That person would have to spend all their money on
looking after the rare animal. (OID 446)

to have other / bigger fish to fry Wichtigeres zu tun haben

to have more important or useful things to do

mít důležitější věci na práci

This utterance can be used literary as well as figuratively. The figurative meaning is opaque it
does not give any idea about important things which are to be done.

There are plenty of other fish in the sea. Es gibt noch mehr davon auf der Welt.

there are other people / things to choose from - used for comforting somebody who is
unhappy about losing an opportunity
věc / osoba není jediná na světě Pro jedno kvítí slunce nesvítí.
The English idiom as well as the Czech one speaking about flowers may be considered to be
semi –opaque – other fish and other flowers symbolize the offered opportunities and new
chances.

one horse town ein Kuhdorf / Kuhkaff /wo sich Fuchs und
Hase gute Nacht sagen
a small boring town where nothing happens

nudná díra
The English and German idioms are opaque. A good knowledge of their meaning is required
to get a notion what the animal idioms had in common with a boring town. The Czech nudná
díra can be marked as semi-opaque as the word boring is transparent and meaning of the hole
in this context has to be explained.

sick as a parrot extrem enttäuscht

very disappointed

velmi zklamaný / smutný jak želva

As a parrot has any facial expression, we can hardly imagine how sick a parrot is. The
comparison is rather illegible. The Czech language uses the utterance sad as a turtle – hearing
this many people imagine a turtle with tears in its eyes, which makes this idiom semi-
transparent. In German there is not any adequate counterpart.

46
 In the fourth table, there are 15 English animal idioms without any counterpart in German
listed. These idioms require either a word-for-word translation or a paraphrase into German or
Czech to be understood. You may imagine a white elephant as an animal of white colour but
only an informed speaker knows that it may be an unwanted gift which causes trouble.

Eight of these idioms are clause idioms and seven are phrase idioms. Except five examples
they are opaque und 73% of them have been used only figuratively.

These idioms represent only 12% of the idioms listed in this thesis which shows the
possibility of English, German as well as of Czech to express human ideas in a lively and
interesting way.

47
Conclusion

People interested in languages or those who are only keen readers and listeners enjoy the
variety of languages, their possibility to express tiny differences between objects, feelings and
situations. Proverbs and idioms represent the means that offer the possibility to depict our
surroundings interestingly – colourful, with remarkable shapes and hues.

As was said above, the usage of idioms and proverbs depends on many factors, such as age,
education, social background, etc.

In my thesis I deal with animal idioms in English and their German and Czech counterparts.
As the roots of these three languages are common and the human perception of the
surroundings is very similar, despite the area, there are over one hundred idioms and proverbs
in my thesis expressing various characteristics and situations which can be found in English,
German as well as in Czech. The usage of biblical utterances indicates the cultural closeness
of the users of the three mentioned languages.

The idioms and proverbs in this thesis are divided into four tables according to vocabulary
and meaning. Differences in structure are of secondary importance. The first table contains 50
analogous idioms, the second table 22 slightly modified idioms and the third one 31
functionally equivalent idioms. In the fourth table there are 15 idioms without appropriate
counterparts in German. Overall there are 48 animal names. The most frequently occurring
are dog (17), horse (10), cat (13) and bird (8). These are the names of domestic animals
which could and can be observed closely in our everyday life, whereas the contact with exotic
animals is not so frequent. People watch them and compare their behaviour and appearance
with human objects.

As far as the opaqueness or transparency are concerned, 3% of the idioms are transparent,
9% are semi-transparent, 37% are semi-opaque and 51% are opaque, which means that it is
necessary to learn the meaning of most idioms by heart to understand them as a listener und
to use them in the right place as a speaker. Only 12% of the idioms are intelligible and can be
understood without further explanation.

Generally, the idioms and proverbs that are somehow connected with the everyday life and
with the imagination of common people can find their counterpart much more easily than
idioms without any real connection , that are pure constructions based on arbitrariness.

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 Working on this thesis I used printed and online dictionaries. Printed dictionaries provided
me with well or less known typical representatives of animal idioms, whereas online
dictionaries offered a wide range of both established and new idioms, sayings and
abbreviations. Interestingly, there are animal idioms that can’t be found in specialized
dictionaries, such as in Oxford Idioms or Duden – Redewendungen but they are listed in
explanatory dictionaries.

Not only do the usage and knowledge of idioms and proverbs differ in the society but also
their interpretation by reputable authors is not always the same. E.g. Jennifer Seidl interprets
the proverb One swallow doesn’t make a summer in her book English Idiom like this: “One
fact or occurrence only does not prove the rule, as it may be an exception,” whereas Learner’s
Dictionary of English Idioms edited by Helene Warren says: “You mustn’t take too seriously
a small sign that something will happen in the future.” The Longman Dictionary of English
Idioms claims that the idiom to get a worm’s eye view of something denotes “an
understanding of a problem that is based on actual knowledge of the details”, whereas the
online dictionary www.idioms.freedictionaty.com says: “You only know or understand a part
of something, usually the worst or least important part.”

The two above listed examples indicate that the improper usage of idioms may cause
misunderstanding or even cause an offence.

In some cases, it was not easy to find a suitable German or Czech counterpart of an English
idiom or proverb and I have doubts whether some of the counterparts are of German or Czech
origin or just translation from English into these languages. It would require a deeper
investigation to find the answer to this question but as the three languages have co-existed for
hundreds of years and influenced each other, it may be an insoluble task.

49
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