SPECIALIZAREA: LIMBA SI LITERATURA ROMANA LIMBA SI LITERATURA ENGLEZA [629979]

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LUCRARE DE LICENȚĂ

Coordonator științific: Absolvent: [anonimizat]. Univ. Anca Georgescu Nicoleta Alexandra Tanase

2018

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Idioms and collcations in English

Coordonator științific: Absolvent: [anonimizat]. Univ. Anca Georgescu Nicoleta Alexandra

TÂRGOVIȘTE
2018

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CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Idioms:
2.1. Definition
2.2. Etymology and origin
3. Collocations:
3.1. Definition
3.2. Etymology and origin
4. Idiom topics
5. Collocations
6. Confusion between idioms and collocations
6.1. Difference between idioms and collocations
6.2. Common mistakes
6.3. Contradictions between idioms
7. Application
7.1. Romanian idioms and their English correspondent
7.2. Proverbs

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2. Idioms
2.1.Definition
English vocabulary in use gives us a definition where the idiom is a fixed expr ession with a meaning that
is usually not clear or obvious. We cannot indicate its meaning, unless we see the context.
The structure of modern English defines the idiom as a sequence of words which functions as a single
unit; it is syntactically fixed an d semantically conventionalized. ( Laurel J. Brinton, 2000, The structure
of modern English : a linguistic introduction, John Benjamins Publishing Company)
We can conclude that an idiom is an expression with the following features:
1. It is fixed and is re cognised by native speakers. You cannot make up your own!
2. It uses language in a non -literal – metaphorical – way.
The following are examples:
Tin up to my eyes in work at the moment.
At the meeting I felt a bit out of my depth.
I was over the moon when I heard she'd had twins!
It broke my mother's heart to see her home burn to the ground.
If you are up to your eyes, you are very busy. If you are out of your depth, you might be in the sea, but
you are more likely to be in a situation which you do not understand for some reason. If you are over the
moon, you are extremely happy about something. If something breaks your heart, you are very sad about
it. In these examples it is clear that the idiom is a whole expression. This is the traditional view o f idioms.
But there is a lot more language which is idiomatic. For example, there are many individual words with
idiomatic uses.

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2.2. Etimology and origin
An idiom (Latin: idiomī , "special property", from Ancient Greek: idíōma , "special feature, special
phrasing, a peculiarity", is a phrase or an expression that has a figurative, or sometimes literal, meaning.
Categorized as formulaic language, an idiom's figurative meaning is different from the literal meaning.
(Tom, McArthur. The Oxford compani on to the English language)

Each idiom has its own origin, as its literal form does not always have a meaning. For instance, to be
like a bull in a china shop means that you are clumsy and able to destroy everything around you only
by moving around as a bull would do trying to get out of the china shop. It looks like for proving the
meaning of the idiom, the famous American publicist and press agent Jim Moran, in January 1940
deliberately introduced a bull in a china shop as a publicity stunt, but t he bull didn’t damage anything.
(Martin, Douglas. James S. Moran Dies at 91; Master of the Publicity Stunt. in The New York Times.
1999)
In 2007 , the US television programme Mythbusters ran bulls in a simulated china shop in a corral. The
animals were nimble but did not destroy too many things, as the aisles were open -ended. The experiement
showed that in a real china shop, the bulls would have had to turn round their lengths to get out of the
shop.
Well, that was a piece of cake! This is an idiom whose meaning cannot be proved trough an experiment,
as having a piece of cake would not demonstrate anything. This expression shows an activity that requires
no effort to acomplish, an easy job. The origins of this idiomatic expressions are not certain. However,
there is an other expression as easy as pie which shows the same thing.

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Its meaning can come not from the baking aspect of making a cake, but from the easiness of eating it.
Each idiom has its own origin, some of them easy to guess and some of them with a doubtfull
connotation.

3. Collocations
3.1. Definition
‘You shall know a word by the company it keeps !’ J. R. Firth, British linguist, 1890 -1960
In English Collocations in Use, Felicity O’Dell and Michael McCharthy say that a coll oquation is a
group of words that frequently go togheter, For example, if someone says yellow hair you would
understand the meaning of the words but they don’t collocate with each other in everyday English. The
right way to say is blonde hair. Yellow would normally be associated with flowers or paint.

The same idea is presented in Grammar and vocabulary by Richard Side and Guy Wellman:

‘Words that occur together frequently 'collocate'. Words that don't collocate never occur together. If we
try, they sound unnatural and wrong.
There are many linguists that tried to give us the definition of collocation . Men Haiyan gathered a
few of them in V ocabulary Increase and Collocation Learning:

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“Combinations of two or more words used in one of their regular, non -idiomatic meanings, following
certain structural patterns, and restricted in their commutability not only by grammatical and semantic
valency (like the components of so -called free word -combinations), but also by usage” Aisenstadt, 1979

“The linguistic phenomenon whereby a given vocabulary item prefers the company of another item rather
than its ‘synonyms’ because of constraints which are not on the level of syntax or conceptual meaning
but on that of usage” V an Roey, 1990

“Combinations in which at least one element has a non -literal meaning (and at least one a literal one)
and in which commutability is arbitrarily restricted, but some commutability is possible” Nesselhauf ,
2005

“Habitually occurring lexical combinations that are character ised by restricted co -occurrence of
elements and relative transparency in meaning” Laufer and Waldman, 2011
Collocations are not all about how adjectives combine with nouns. They can aslo be found in compounds
like:

-noun+noun: -adverb+noun:
word deafness utterly stupid
word salad richly decorated
voting right fully aware
-adjec tive+noun: -noun+verb:
regular exercise barking dog

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maiden voyage snow was falling
excruciating pain t he bomb went off
-verb+noun: -verb+expression with preposition:
commiting murder run out of gas
do my homework burst into tears
making my bed drive anybody to crime ( English Collocations in Use, 2008)

Classifications of lexical collocations by Benson et al. (The BBI Combinatory Dictionary of English,
2010)

Verb + noun/pronoun (or prepositional phrase); with the verb denoting creation and/or activation
Come to an agreement, make an impression, compose music

Verb + noun; with the verb denoting eradication and/or nullification Reject an appeal, lift a
blockade, break a code
Adjective + noun Strong tea, warm regards, reckless abandon

Noun + verb Adjectives modify, alarms go off, bees buzz
Noun + of + noun A herd of buffalo, a pack of dogs, a bouquet of flowers

Adverb + adjective Deeply absorbed, strictly accurate, sound asleep
Verb + adverb Affect deeply, amuse thoroughly,

3.2. Etymology and origin

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Collocation: mid -15c., collocacioun, a ligament, from Old French and directly from Latin collocationem,
noun of action from past particople stem collocare ‘place together’ or ‘set in place’. The meaning of the
state of being ordered with something else is from c. 1600. Linguistics sense is attested in 1940.
(https://www.etymonline.com/word/collocation)

4. Idiom topics
There are thousands of idiomatic expressions in English, each of them gathered around a main subject.
There are idioms based on almost each and any main topic such as: age, body, animals, art, clothes, home,
law, life, food, love, nature, religion etc., each one having its own way of using and interpretation. Every
main topic has a few minor topic.
The website www.knowyourphrase.com gives us the topics idioms are used. For example, taking the
topic of animals , we have idioms containing:
a. horses:
-beating up a dead horse;
The idiom expresses the fact of bringing up an issue or conflict that has already been concluded or
solved, a pointless idea which has already been disscused. The origin of the phrase may come from the
horse races, where the owner might beat his horse to run faster. But if the horse is dead or tired, what’s
the point o f beating it? If he had already lost the race, beating it would not do you any favor.
The phrase goes back to at least the year 1859, as a written form of it is in the Watchman And Wesleyan
Advertiser newspaper from London. There's an article from the n ewspaper that reads:

"It was notorious that Mr.Bright was dissatisfied with his winter reform campaign and rumor said that
he had given up his effort with the exclamation that it was like flogging a dead horse."

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*flogging – an other word for beating
e.g. Why did he beat up a dead horse with those old issues of his job?
-don’t look a gift horse in the mouth;

This idiom shows what you should not do when you received a gift: be ungrateful, anaylze it, measure
up to their standards. The expression ha s its origin in a proverb from the 16th century: “No man ought to
look a given horse in the mouth.”

e.g. I like roses a lot but John brought me violets for my birthday. I decided not to look a gift horse in the
mouth and apreciate his effort.

-hold yo ur horses

It express a way of telling someone to stop or hold on. Even if nowadays the means of transport do not
include horses, the phrase kept on being used for telling someone to hold on,wait for somethng.
e.g. This boy looks nice and cool, but hold your horses and make sure he likes you.

b. cats and dogs
-raining cats and dogs
This idiom is used to describe a heavy rainfall. The phrase has been used for at least 350 years but the
origin of it remains unknown. There's a comedy called The City Wit, written in 1653 by Richard Brome,
that uses a modified version of the phrase, but the meaning still references the weather: " It shall raine…
Dogs and Polecats. "
e.g. You can’t go out now. It’s raining cats and dogs!
-curiosity killed the cat

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This is used as a warning for anyone who acts curious and wants to know every detail of a story, and
their behaviour may lead them to harm. The first version of the phrase was care killed the cat , the word
‘care’ being use with the connotation of ‘worr y’ or‘sorrow’ .
William Shakespeare, used the expression in the play ‘ Much Ado About Nothing’ , which is thought to
have been written in 1599:
"What, courage man! what though care killed a cat, thou hast mettle enough in thee to kill care. "
e.g. I told him that curiosity killed the cat but he wouldn’t listen to me,so he went in that cave.
-barking up the wrong tree

The idiom means to make a wrong assuption about someone, to falsely accuse him of doing something.
The phrase, perhaps, may be linked of dogs and hunting. People used to have trained dogs to help them
hunt other animals, as the dog have a strong sense of smell. When they sensed the smell of the animal,
the dogs start chasing it. The chased animal would climb a tree to escape from the dog and t he hunters
but the dog would not do that so it would stop by the tree and start barking at it. There are a few reasons
why the dog has picked a wrong tree. Maybe it lost the sight of the chased animal and thought that is the
tree it climbed or maybe it w as distracted by other things and decided to bark at something else.
e.g. I’m sorry I was barking up the wrong tree when I accused you of stealing my bracelet.

c. birds

-love birds
The idiom reffers to a couple who shares love. Lovebirds are small parrots who have a strong
relationship and share a true love. An early example of this in writing comes from the Burlington Hawk
Eye newspaper, 1897:

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"The two Norwegians sat on a chest side by side, alike and placid, resembling a pair of love -birds in a
perch. "

The earliest example of people being directly called lovebirds is from around the year 1852, in a novel
called Bleak House by Charles Dickens :

“Mr. Guppy, going to the window tumbles into a pair of love -birds, to whom he says in his confusion, 'I
beg your pardon, I am sure.' "

-sitting ducks

A sitting duck is someone in a vulnerable position, someone who can be easily hit. When people used
to go out and hunt for food, ducks were the prime target but they were not easy targets. They fly f ast and
cannot be shooted so easily. However, there is a type of ducks called mallard that looks for food on the
surface of water and can be seen floating or sitting on water. Those are easy to shot.

If we take the topic of sports, we have idioms containing:

a. baseball:

-off base

If you happen to be off base it means that you are wrong about something. Possibly originating from the
sport of baseball, the phrase reffers to a player being positioned a short distance away from a base plate
being off base. This position is considered to be very risky as the player whose foot is off base could be
picked off by the other team.

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b. boxing:

-on the ropes

Being on the ropes means to be in a desperate, difficult, bad situation. The origin of the idiom comes
from boxing, for sure. If the boxer is on the ropes of the ring, he is incapable of moving too much.

-roll with the punches

The boxing term means to move in a position that the pain of the punches you may take decreases. As
an idiom, it means to deal with the hardships you may run into.

Taking the topic of food we find idioms like:
-piece of cake
An action is a piece of cake if it was a simple and easy task to do.

-quit cold turkey
The idiom is used when someone wants to quit a bad habbit. The origin of it is very doubtful as it may
be linked to an old expression talking cold turkey meaning to speak plainly, nonsens. So if someone quits
that bad habbit, we can say he quits talking cold turkey. The idiom can be use d in various situations like:
Due to his health problems he decided to quit smoking cold turkey.

-cry over spilled milk
The idiom defines being sad about something that cannot be changed, as it's no use crying over spilled
milk. It’s not going to fix it. The earliest writing where the expression is found in a book called Once A
Week, 1872:

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"A correspondent of the same paper, who signs himself 'Octogenarian,' raised the question of the
date when 'There's no use crying over spilt milk' first came into proverbial use."

-my cup of tea
Is someone or something is your cup of tea it means you like it and find it agreable or delightful. The
origin is quite visible. Tea is one of the most widely consumed beverage in the world, next to water. It
comes with many flavors and there are people who like them all and people who only like a few flavors.
If the tea matches one’s favourite flavor, it is his cup of tea.

–

In English V ocabulary In Use, Felicity O’Dell and Michael McCarthy sort the idioms into certain
classes as below:
1. Idioms describing people:
a. positive and negative qualities:
-a heart of gold
She has a heart of gold. She is very generous and kind.
-as good as gold
He is as good as gold. He is helpful, well -behaved.
-hard as nails
Don’t be hard as nails. You’ll never make friends that way.
If you have no symphaty for others you’ll never make friends.
-a cold fish
You are such a cold fish. My friends won’t like you.
You are distant and unfriendly.
-awkw ard customer
My friend is an awkward customer. My friend a difficult person to deal with.
-a pain in the neck
Mary is a pain in the neck. Nobody likes her.
Mary is difficult and annoying.

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b. how people relate to the social norm:
-odd-ball
She is a bit of an odd -ball. She is very strange.
-over the top
The kids were really over the top. The kids had an exagerated behaviour.
-round the bend
He is round the bend, if you ask me. He is absolutely crazy/mad.

-middle of the road
My opinion is very middle of the road. My opinion is neither right or left wing.

2. Idioms describing feelings or mood:

a. positive feelings, moods or states:
-happy as the day is long
John is as happy as the day is long because his wife is pregnant.
John is extremely content.
-on clound nine
She seems to be on cloud nine those days. She is extremely happy.
-high spirits
Everyone in the room is in high spirits. Everyone is enjoying things, lively.
-keep the chin up
She seems to be keeping her ch in up. She seems to be happy despite the bad things that happened.

b. negative feelings, moods or states:
-face as long as a fiddle
He had a face as long as a fiddle. He looked very sad/depressed.
-black mood

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Andrew is in a black mood. He is in a ba d temper.
-like a bear with a sore head
I am like a bear with a sore head those days. I am extremely irritable.

c. physical feelings or states:
-eat a horse
I could eat a horse right now. I am very hungry.
-feel all in
I’m feeling all in. Don’t disturb me.
I feel really exhausted.
-under the weather
She was looking a bit under the weather. Is she ok?
She was looking a bit ill.
-at death’ s door
I was almost at death’s door last week.
I was very sick.

d. fear/fright:
-scared stiff
She was scared stiff when she saw the shadow. She was very scared.

-shaking in the shoes
We were all shaking in our shoes. We were trembling with fear.
-to jump out of the skin
He jumped out of his skin when he heard that noise.
He gave a big jump.

3. Idioms connected with problematic situations:

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a. problems and difficulties:
-to be in a fix
I was in a fix when he asked me for money. I was in a difficult situation.
-to be in a tight corner
Mary has never been in such a tight corner. Mary has never been on a situation so hard to get out of.
b. reacting in situations:
-to take a back seat – to take the bull by the horns
[to let others handle a situation] [act positively to attack a problem or situation]

-to stir things up – to pour oil on troubled waters
[do things that make things worse] [do things to calm down the situation]

-to keep one’ s card close to one’ s c hest – lay one’ s card on the table
[hold back information] [state exactly what your position is]

c. easing the situation:
-buried the hatchet
The two countries buried the hatchet for the time being.
The two countries made peace.
-swept under the carpet
All our problems were swept under the carpet for now.
All our problems weere deliberately forgotten without solving them.
-go a long way
You should apology. It would go a long way.
It would help a lot.

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4. Idioms about praise and criticism:

a. saying people/things are better than the rest:
-to be the head and shoulders
She is the head and shoulders above the rest of the girls.
She is better.
-streets ahead
When It comes to Literature, Nicole is streets ahead all of us.
She is better than all of us.
b. criticising people and things
-dog's dinner
At the event, she was dressed up like a dog's dinner.
She was over dressed.
-the bee's knees
Well, most of the time she thinks she is the bee's knees.
She thinks she is wonderful.

5. Idioms connected with using language

a. Comunication problems:
-to get the wrong end of the stick
I got the wrong end of the stick believeing she is in love with me.
I misunderst and the situation.
-can't make head or tail of it
I've been working on this project foe two weeks but I still can't make head or tail out of it.
I cannot make any sense of it.
b. Good talk/ bad talk
-small talk
It was just small talk. Nothing important.

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-give a talking
Matt went too far this time. I should go give him a taling to.
I should reproach him.
c. talk in discussions, meetings
-start the ball rolling
Who is going to start the ball rolling?
Who is going to start the discussion?
-put it in a nutshel l
I'm in a hurry. Just put it in a nutshell.
Say it in a few words.
-long-winded
I should start. Alice is so long -winded.
She says thing in long, indirect way.
-talk sense

I hope you will talk sense this time.
I hope you will say intelligent, reasonable t hings.

6. Idioms: miscellaneous

a. Pay/ buy/ sell
-to buy a real pig in a poke
John bought a real pig in a poke when he got the house.
He bought something without examining it properly.
-pay over the odds
We will pay over the odds for the car, now that everyone wants one.
We will pay more than the usual rate.

b. Parts of the body
-pay through the nose

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We will pay through the nose for the food here.
We will pay a huge amount.
-have a finger in every pie
This man has a finger in every pie. He is involved in many different thing.

5. Collocations

Grammar and vocabulary shortly categorized collocations in 2 types:

fixed collocations

open collocations

In fixed collocations, particular words occur together, and the cornbination has a special meaning. Other
words are not possible and so we can learn these compounds and common phrases as a combination of
words.

In open collocations, we can choose from a limited set of words to combine with another word. We nee d
a full understanding of the meanings of individual words, but there is often no loigical reason why some
words collocate and others don't.

The fixed collocation is a phrase which is decompositional and whose contituents combine only with
each oter.
Examples:
-crash course= fast and intense course

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I had to go to a crash course of German before going to visit my uncle.

-safe and sound= frre from danger and injury
The lost children were found safe and sound.

-on the dot= exactly, precisely
She gets up early in the morning so she can arrive at work at 8 o’clock on the dot.

-in a flash= quickly
She went home for her umbrella and got back in a flash.

The open collocations are formed from words that can combine with other words.
Examples:

-fragile peace/ uneasy peace
-feel free
-come prepared
-save time
-make the bed
-do the homework
-open an account
-land a deal

We can classify and enumerate examples of collocations by the grammar part:

a. Verb collocations:

HA VE:
-have a bath -have a drink
-have a good time -have a problems

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-have a rest -have a relationship

DO:
-do business -do nothing
-do the shopping -do your best
-do your hair -do someone a favour

MAKE:
-make a difference -make a mistake
-make a noise -make progress
-make an effort -make money

TAKE:
-take a breath -take a seat
-take notes -take someone’s place
-take a taxi -take an exam

BREAK:
-break a h abit -break a promise
-break the ice -break the law
-break a record -break someone’s heart

CATCH:
-catch a ball -catch a bus
-catch fire -catch a flu
-catch a thief -catch a chill

PAY:
-pay a fine -pay attention
-pay interest -pay cash

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-pay the bill -pay your respect

SA VE:
-save energy -save money
-save space -save time
-save yourself -save someone’s life

COME:
-come close -come on time
-come to a decison -come prepared
-come last -come right back

GO:
-go abroad -go bad
-go mad -go missing
-go deaf -go on foot

GET:
-get a job -get home
-get nowhere -get pre gnant
-get started -get the impresion

b. Miscellaneous

TIME:
-dead on time -make time for
-free time -late 20th century
-next few days -right on time

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BUSINESS:
-annual turnover -break off negotiations
-come to the point – cease trading
-dismiss an offer -draw a conclusion

CLASSIFIERS:
-a ball of string
-a bar of chocolate
-a bunch of carrots
-a cube of sugar

6. Confusion between idioms and collocations

6.1.Difference between idioms and collocations

An idiom is a full expression. It does not have any literal meaning. We can get its sense by looking at
the full idea and by context. The meaning of the entire construction is distinct from the words’ individual
signification. Idioms are colloquialisms or expressions that people say -for example: My mother stopped
crying over spilled milk.
In a collocation, words simply go collectively for a native speaker. A collocation is an arrangement of
words that are commonly used together.

For the same topic , we can find idioms and collocations that ca be used in certain circumstances.
WORK:
a. idioms:
-a backlog of work =work that still needs to be done
-work your fingers to the bone =work very hard

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-work for peanuts =work for very little money

b. collocations:
-humdrum =boring, repetitive work
-seasonal work =work in busy times of the year
-shift work =work at different times in the day

6.3. Contradiction between idioms

It is quite difficult to understand native users of English when they speak using idiom. Often
when learners of English read a book or an article or watch a movie, they misunderstand a lot if idioms
are used. A solid apprehension of common idioms will allow learners to understand a large amount of
the natural speech.
For some r easons, idioms can be in contradiction, both usable and effectual. If you should not judge a
book by its cover, why clothes make the man? In the same time you're never too old to learn, but you
can't teach an old dog new tricks. Prior to this, too many coo ks spoil the broth, but many hands make
light work. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, but beware of Greeks bearing gifts. The list may go on
with many examples of contradictory idioms, but let’s take a look at the origins of those expressions.
Your vi sual aspect actually matters in every situation. This thing does not mean that it is the only
important thing. The root of the idiom 'don’t judge a book by its cover ' is fairly new. The formulation
is attributed to a 1944 edition of the African journal Am erican Speech : “You can’t judge a book by its
binding.” It was popularized even more when it appeared in the 1946 murder mystery Murder in the
Glass Room by Lester Fuller and Edwin Rolfe: “You can never tell a book by its cover’’.
The website www.phrases.org.uk gives us the origin of clothes make the man:

CLOTHES MAKE THE MAN – "Appearances count for a lot. A similar expression was current among
the ancient Greeks: 'The garment makes the man.' In the form 'ap parel makes the man' the idea turned

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up in England as early as the 16th century. A century later it was sometimes put as 'the taylor makes the
man." From "The Dictionary of Cliches" by James Rogers (Ballantine Books, New York, 1985). A second
source points out that a similar phrase was used by William Shakespeare in "Hamlet."

Too many cooks spoil the broth .
This proverb most likely dates back to at least the late medieval period. In 1575, it was cited by the
writer George Gascoigne, who noted that ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’ was a common proverb.
Since, Gascoigne stated that this proverb was already common, it is safe to say that it had been in
existence for a number of years.
Gascoigne’s writings are one of the first written sources of this proverb . As is often the case with proverbs,
this proverb probably existed before it was written down as people said it to each other for many years.

7. Application

The Romanian language is full of proverbs and sayings. When it comes to idioms, there is not always
a literal translation of words and meaning. In the list, there are a few examples of idioms with the English
version :

7.1. English and Romanian idioms
-add insult to injury=o nenorocire nu vine niciodata singura
*to compound a problem (or set of problems) with more difficulties or problems.

-better safe than sorry= paza buna trece primejdia rea
*it is better to work more on a problem to keep safe then regret afterwards.

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-get blood from a stone= a scoate ceva din piatra seaca
*to exploit something to the maximum

-keep your eye on the ball= a nu -ti pierde din vedere scopul
*not to lose your focus

-living high on the hog= a trai pe picior mare
*to live well and wealthy

-to have a big off= a iesi din décor
*to step out of something

-to join the trend= a intra in rand cu lumea
*to do something to be the same with the rest

-to hit the nail on the head= a pune punctul pe i
*to do exactly the right thing

-from the housetops=in gura mare
*publicly and widely

-frectie la picior de lemn= flogging a dead horse
*to do something in vain

–

7.2. Proverbs

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Birds of a feather flock together as English and Romanian proverbs have different forms but the same
meanings.

First come, first served – Primul venit primul servit.
A friend in need is a friend indeed – Prietenul la nevoie se cunoaste.
Better late than never – Mai bine mai tarziu decat niciodata.
A bird in hand is worth two in the bush – Ce-i in mana nu -i minciuna.
A bird in hand is worth two in the bush – Vrabia din mâna face mai mult dec ât cioara de pe gard.

A cat in mittens catches no mice – Pisica cu clopotei de coada nu prinde soareci.

He laughs best who laughs last – Cine rade la urma rade mai bine.

Never do things by halves – Nu lasa pe maine ce poti face astazi.

As you sow, so you shall reap – Cum iti asterni, asa dormi.

Great haste makes great waste – Graba strica treaba.

Out of sight, out of mind – Ochii care nu se vad se uita.

Strike while the iron is hot – Bate fierul cat e cald.

There’s no smoke without fire – Nu iese f um fara foc.

When the cat is away the mice will play – Cand pisisca nu e acasa soarecii joaca pe masa.

Blood is thicker than water – Sangele apa nu se face.

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Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill – Nu face din tantar armasar.

The last straw that broke the camel’s back – Picatura care a umplut paharul.

A leopard cannot change its spots – Lupul isi schimba blana dar naravul ba.

Once bitten twice shy – Cine se arde cu ciorba sufla si -n iaurt.

Jump from the frying pan into the fire – A sari din lac in p ut.
(https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/proverbs.html )

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BIBLIOGRAFIE:

DOUGLAS, Martin, 1999, ‘’James S. Moran Dies at 91: Master of the publicity stunt.” in The New
York Times;
EVANS, Virginia, MILTON, James, 2002, A good turn of Phrase, Newbury: Express Publishing;
MCARTHUR, Tom, 1992, The Oxford companion to the English language, Oxford and New York:
Oxford University Press;
MCCARTHY, Michael, O’DELL, Felicity, 2008, English Colloquations in use, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press;
COLLINS English Dictionary and Thesaurus, 2013
HYPERLINK "http://www.knowyourphrase.com/"