Proverbs with antonyms: examples and interpretation

Anthony is not only an opposition of words in meaning, but also an important device that gives the speaker's speech more expressiveness. Often at the expense of opposition, a person for a longer period and more qualitatively remembers any phrase or thought. In many respects it is with the antonyms that the instructive effect, which has on the person stable combinations, proverbs and sayings, is connected.

Help: general information about antonyms and proverbs

Before proceeding to proverbs with antonyms existing in the Russian language, as well as their examples from other languages of the world, one should remember the simplest school rule and answer the question what exactly are antonyms. Antonyms are words that belong to one part of speech, but are opposite in their lexical meaning. Examples include the following pairs of words:

• White black;
• light heavy;
• day Night;
• Young - old.

Proverbs called figurative, apt apprentices, affecting different areas of human life and bearing an instructive, edifying character. Examples are:

• Make a fool to pray to God, he will break his forehead.
• A penny preserves a penny.
• I started for my health, but I finished for my peace.

Russian proverbs with antonyms

The analysis of Russian proverbs with antonyms can begin with the aforementioned " began for health, and finished for the repose, " where there is an anonymous couple " health - peace ". The meaning of this proverb is that people sometimes radically change the course of their thoughts, especially when speaking in public. In recent years, very often this proverb also acquires meaning "began to do something good, but completely ruined the work at the very end."

• Our team started the match for health, but finished it for the rest.

In addition to this proverb, the following examples can be cited:

• Guilty blood is water, and innocent trouble.
• Peace drinks water, and anxiety is honey.
• Learning is light and ignorance is darkness.

Proverbs with antonyms from other peoples

Similar in structure proverbs can be found in other people. For example:

• If it's not broken, do not repair it (English).
• It was easy - it was easy (English, as a rule it is used when it comes to money).

• You can not win - join (English, the meaning of this proverb is that in order to change something in the world around you, sometimes you have to change yourself).
• You will not spend it - you will not sell it (Italian, says that sometimes you need to invest something, sometimes very seriously, but the profit will then pay back all the costs, and it's not just about money, but also about time and effort).
• Who burned with hot soup, blowing and cold (Italian, use when a person, seriously injured by something, now begins to exercise caution at times completely unnecessary).

Such interesting proverbs with antonyms can be found in different languages (by the way, the overwhelming majority of them have Russian-language analogues) and thanks to them to once again assess the role of opposition in our speech.