2014 ж шілде, №3 (35) Журнал 2005 ж. қантардан бастап шығады

ПƏНДЕРДІ ОҚЫТУ ƏДІСТЕМЕСІ  
     МЕТОДИКА И ТЕХНОЛОГИЯ  
ЖƏНЕ ТЕХНОЛОГИЯСЫ 
ПРЕПОДАВАНИЯ ДИСЦИПЛИН 
 
61 
 
УДК 81’22 
 
LEXICAL AND GRAMMATICAL PECULIARITIES  
OF EVERYDAY IDIOMS IN ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN LANGUAGES 
 
Исмагулова Г.К.,  
кандидат филологических наук, КГПИ
 
Мастрюкова Н.В., 
студентка 4 курса, КГПИ 
г. Костанай, Казахстан 
 
Аннотация 
Бұл  мақалада  тұрмыстық  идиома,  жəне  оның  орыс,  ағылшын  тіл-
дердеріндегі лексикалық жəне грамматикалық ерекшеліктері талданылады. 
Сонымен  қатар,  жұмыста  идиомалар  жəне  оның  түрлі  топтастырулары 
қарастырылып, орыс жəне ағылшын тілдерінде мысалдар алынып, олардың 
салыстырмалы талдаулары  келтірілген.  
 
Аннотация 
В  этой  статье  речь  пойдет  о  бытовых  идиомах,  их  лексических  и 
грамматических особенностях и сравнительном анализе в русском и англий-
ском языках. Также в нашей работе рассматриваются идиомы в целом и их 
различные классификации, приводятся примеры русских и английских идиом, 
проводится их сопоставительный анализ. 
 
Abstract 
In this article we focus on everyday idioms, their lexical and grammatical 
peculiarities and comparative analysis in Russian and English languages. Also in 
this work we consider idioms in general and their different classifications, there 
are examples of Russian and English idioms, present their comparative analysis. 
 
Түйінді сөздер: идиома, лексика жəне грамматикалық өзгешеліктер, күнбе-
күнгі идиомалар, идиоманың топтастыруы. 
Ключевые слова: идиомы, лексико-грамматические особенности, повседнев-
ное общение, классификация идиом. 
Key words: idioms, lexical and grammatical peculiarities, everyday communica-
tion, classification of idioms. 
 
1. Introduction. 
Idioms are used regularly and naturally in everyday communication, however, the inner 
meaning of the concept of idioms is still unclear to a lot of people. Therefore, a study on the subject 
of idioms in Russian and English is helpful for improving the knowledge of language learners, as 
well as to better consider lexical and grammatical peculiarities of Russian and English in general.  
The aim of the research is to recognize difference and similarity of lexical and grammatical 
peculiarities of everyday idioms in English and Russian languages. 
2. Materials and methods. 
To achieve the aim we have determined the nature of everyday idioms; classified everyday 
idioms; studied grammatical and lexical peculiarities of everyday idioms, and eventually analyzed 
the grammatical and lexical peculiarities of everyday idioms. 
3-4. Results and discussion. 
First of all we would like to say some words of idioms in common. 
According to J. Seed “an idiom is words collocated together happen to become fossilized, 
becoming fixed over time. This collocation - words commonly used in a group - changes the defini-
tion of each of the words that exist. As an expression, the word-group becomes a team, so to speak. 

ПƏНДЕРДІ ОҚЫТУ ƏДІСТЕМЕСІ  
     МЕТОДИКА И ТЕХНОЛОГИЯ  
ЖƏНЕ ТЕХНОЛОГИЯСЫ 
ПРЕПОДАВАНИЯ ДИСЦИПЛИН 
 
62 
 
That is, the collocated words develop a specialized meaning as a whole and an idiom is born. An 
everyday idiom is a group of words in which the meaning of this group is different than what would 
be expected”. (
Michael McCarthy & Felicity O’Del, 2003)
. 
There are two another different meanings according to Cramley and Philip concerning 
idioms. Cramley understands an idiom as «a complex item which is longer than a word- form but 
shorter then a sentence and which has a meaning that cannot be derived from the knowledge of its 
component parts» (
Anthony K.A
) and Gill Philip «an idiom is class of multy –word units which pose 
a challenge to our understanding of grammar and lexis that hasn’t yet been fully met» (
Ginsburg R. 
S., 2011)
.  
Hocket considers everyday idiom «as a modern linguistic agreement on one composed of 
two or more constituent parts generally deemed to be words. The closer the wording of an idiom 
reflects a real world situation the easier it is to interpret» (
Arnold I.V., 2002)
. 
Becker made an observation that successful communication is often at odds with the produc-
tion of novel utterances. Idiomatic and formulaic language can provide a basis for an interweaving 
network for embedding novel proposition, which results in the fact that a lengthy utterance is likely 
to contain more prefabricated frames and routine structures. Thus, one of the purposes of the use of 
formulaic and idiomatic structures is keeping the focus on formulation of one’s novel ideas while 
maintaining fluency through holistic retrieval of prefabricated complex structures from mental 
lexicon (
McCarthy M., 2011)
. 
If we say about classification of idioms, there are two groups of everyday idioms according 
to their structure: nominal – “a black sheep” (of the family) [shame of the family], and verbal – “to 
take risks” (to risk). There are four groups of everyday idioms according to the parts of speech: no-
minal phrases: hard luck [misfortune]; adjective phraseological units: “all fingers and thumbs” 
[clumsy]; verbal: t”o get on like a house on fire” [to make progress]; adverbial: “vice versa” [con-
versely] (
Carter R., 2001)
. 
A.I. Smirnitsky worked out structural classification of everyday idioms, comparing them 
with words. He points out one-top units which he compares with derived words because derived 
words have only one root morpheme. He points out two-top units which he compares with com-
pound words because in compound words we usually have two root morphemes. Among one-top 
units he points out three structural types: a) units of the type «to give up» – (verb + postposition 
type), e.g. to art up, to back up, to drop out, to nose out, to buy into, to sandwich in etc.; b) units of 
the type «to be tired» – some of these units remind the Passive Voice in their structure but they 
have different prepositions with them, while in the Passive Voice we can have only prepositions 
«by» or «with», e.g. «to be tired of», «to be interested in», «to be surprised at» etc. There are also 
units in this type which remind free word-groups of the type «to be young», e.g. «to be akin to», «to 
be aware of» etc. The difference between them is that the adjective «young» can be used as an 
attribute and as a predicative in a sentence, while the nominal component in such units can act only 
as a predicative. In these units the verb is the grammar centre and the second component is the se-
mantic centre; c) prepositional- nominal phraseological units – these units are equivalents of 
unchangeable words: prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs, that is why they have no grammar centre, 
their semantic centre is the nominal part, e.g. on the doorstep (quite near), on the nose (exactly), in 
the course of, on the stroke of, in time, on the point of etc. In the course of time such units can beco-
me words, e.g. tomorrow, instead etc.  
Among two-top units A.I. Smirnitsky points out the following structural types:  
a) attributive-nominal – such as: «a month of Sundays», «grey matter», «a millstone round 
one’s neck» and many others. Units of this type are noun equivalents and can be partly or perfectly 
idiomatic. In partly idiomatic units (phrasems) sometimes the first component is idiomatic, e.g. 
«high road», in other cases the second component is idiomatic, e.g. “first night”. In many cases both 
components are idiomatic, e.g. “red tape”, “blind alley”, “bed of nail”, “shot in the arm” and many 
others; 

ПƏНДЕРДІ ОҚЫТУ ƏДІСТЕМЕСІ  
     МЕТОДИКА И ТЕХНОЛОГИЯ  
ЖƏНЕ ТЕХНОЛОГИЯСЫ 
ПРЕПОДАВАНИЯ ДИСЦИПЛИН 
 
63 
 
b) verb-nominal idioms – (phraseological units), e.g. «to read between the lines», «to speak 
BBC», «to sweep under the carpet» etc. The grammar centre of such units is the verb, the semantic 
centre in many cases is the nominal component, e.g. “to fall in love”. In some units the verb is both 
the grammar and the semantic centre, e.g. “not to know the ropes”. These units can be perfectly 
idiomatic as well, e.g. «to burn one’s boats», «to vote with one’s feet», «to take to the cleaners» etc. 
Word-groups of the type «to have a glance», «to have a smoke» stay close to such units. These 
idioms are not idiomatic and are treated in grammar as a special syntactical combination, a kind of 
aspect;  
c) phraseological repetitions – such as: «now or never», «part and parcel», «country and 
western» etc. Such idioms can be built on antonyms, e.g. «ups and downs», «back and forth»; often 
they are formed by means of alliteration, e.g «cakes and ale», «as busy as a bee». Components in re-
petitions are joined by means of conjunctions (
Lakoff G. and M. Johnson, 2012)
. 
As it was said, in our work we study everyday idioms to identify differences and similarities 
of grammatical and lexical peculiarities of everyday idioms in English and Russian languages.   
First of all consider lexemic idioms. Both in English and Russian languages there are lexe-
mic, phrasal idioms and completely frozen forms. Some of them coincide with their equivalents ful-
ly, other correspond partly. Let’s see the examples when English and Russian idioms coincide both 
in grammatical and lexical aspects. 
 
Table 1. 
 
Russian 
 
English 
1. Russian 
Взять себя в руки 
To take oneself in one’s hands 
English 
Взять себя в руку 
To take oneself in hand 
2. Russian 
Висеть на телефоне 
To be hanging on the telephone 
English 
Сидеть на телефоне 
To sit on the phone 
3. Russian 
Выйти из пеленок 
To come out of the swaddling-clothes 
English 
Не быть в пелёнках 
To be out of the swaddling-clothes 
4. Russian 
Вырвать что-либо с корнем 
To tear something out with root 
English 
Вырвать что-либо с корнем 
To root something out 
5. Russian 
Сидеть на пороховой бочке 
To sit on a powder keg 
English 
Сидеть на пороховой бочке 
To sit on a powder keg 
6. Russian 
Замести следы 
To sweep over one’s traces 
English 
Замести следы 
To cover up one’s traces 
7. Russian 
Играть первую скрипку 
To play the first violin 
English 
Играть первую скрипку 
To play first fiddle 
 
How we can see from the table series of everyday idioms of Russian and English languages 
coincide with their equivalents completely. 
The most popular group of lexemic idioms in English is verbal, i.e. phrasal verbs, it 
constitutes one of the peculiarities of English. For example: 
 

ПƏНДЕРДІ ОҚЫТУ ƏДІСТЕМЕСІ  
     МЕТОДИКА И ТЕХНОЛОГИЯ  
ЖƏНЕ ТЕХНОЛОГИЯСЫ 
ПРЕПОДАВАНИЯ ДИСЦИПЛИН 
 
64 
 
Table 2. 
get a grip on oneself – take 
control of one's feelings 
Контролировать свои чувства 
Stop crying! Get a grip on yourself! 
get along with – have good 
relations
 
быть  в  хороших  отношениях, 
ладить  
Ann gets along with most coworkers, 
but doesn't get along with Laura 
get cold feet – be afraid to 
do 
побояться сделать  
I wanted to try it but got cold feet 
get even with – have one's 
revenge
 
расквитаться с кем-то  
I'll get even with him for everything! 
Get lost! – Lay off! 
Исчезни! 
I don't want to see you again. Get lost! 
get away with – not be 
caught after doing wrong 
уйти от наказания  
The police didn't find the thief. He got 
away with his crime 
get carried away – get too 
excited and enthusiastic 
about something 
слишком увлечься чем-то  
He got carried away with opening a 
store and lost most of his money 
 
As we can see from examples, although this kind of everyday idioms has a fixed form it 
changes its grammatical form according to the context. 
Another type of lexemic idioms concerns adverbial / comparative everyday idioms. Adver-
bial everyday idioms can belong to the three following general patterns:
 
 
Table 3. 
English idioms
 
Russian idioms
• as C as B 
As warm as sunbeam 
As transparent as glass
 
C как B 
злой как собака 
голодный как волк
• like/ as B 
Like two peas in a pod 
 
Как B 
как две капли воды 
• C like/ as B C 
To follow like a shadow
 
как / словно 
есть как слон 
 
In idioms of comparison, the part showing comparative relationship and the things compared 
(как B – as/ like B) are stable in both surface structure and deep structure. If the comparative 
structure is broken, the idiom of comparison will be broken, too. The image of comparison is con-
stantly the symbolic one that is full of national identities. Through part “B” – the image 
of comparative idioms – the way of observing the world thinking, cultural life and the natural scene 
of a nation can be revealed. For instance, idioms in English exist: as rich as Croesus (Croesus was 
such a rich king that he had every guest takes as much gold as he could carry, upon leaving), to 
work like a Trojan (Trojan originally referred to the inhabitants of Troy, the ancient city besieged 
by the Greeks in their efforts to retrieve their queen, Helen, who had been abducted by the son of 
the King of Troy. According to the legend, the Trojans were a hard-working, determined, indust-
rious people). Such in Russian have: стройна как лань (as slim as a doe), спокойный как слон, (as 
calm as an elephant), нежный как цветок (as gentle as a flower). This puts in plain words why 
there exist few equivalents between idioms in general and idioms of comparison in particular of two 
languages. As a matter of fact, with the same content, each people use different images to express. 
Let’s look at the examples and compare: 
English  
Russian 
As hot as mustard  
жгучий как перец
 
Like hot cake 
горячий как пирожки 
Despite the differences in culture, there are still coincidences in ways of thinking and obser-
ving the world of English and Russian people. This undoubtedly leads to the similarities in the way 
of expressing ideas and concepts through idioms. In fact, many English idioms of comparison have 

ПƏНДЕРДІ ОҚЫТУ ƏДІСТЕМЕСІ  
     МЕТОДИКА И ТЕХНОЛОГИЯ  
ЖƏНЕ ТЕХНОЛОГИЯСЫ 
ПРЕПОДАВАНИЯ ДИСЦИПЛИН 
 
65 
 
exact equivalents in Russian in terms of both grammatical and lexical aspects. To make this clear, 
let us consider these following idioms:
 
 
Table 4. 
English idioms
 
Russian equivalents 
As black as coal 
Черный как уголь
As bright as day
 
Яркий как день
As changeable as the weather
 
Переменчив как погода
As cold as ice
 
Холодный как лед
As cunning as a fox 
 
Хитрый как лиса
Аs old as the hills
Древний как холмы
As light as a feather
 
Легкий как перышко
As mum as an oyster
 
Нем как рыба
 
Also it should be mentioned that the essential features of this kind of everyday idioms is 
stability of the lexical components. Lexical stability means that the components of set expressions 
are either irreplaceable like «red tape» or partly replaceable or partly replaceable within the bounds 
of phraseological or phraseomatic variance. For example, we cannot say “as hot as an ice” or “as 
cold as a fire”. But nevertheless we can say “as red as a rose” instead of “as red as a beetroot”. The 
same process we can notice in Russian language. We can say «медленный как черепаха» instead 
of «медленный как улитка», but we cannot say «злой как заяц» instead of «злой как собака». 
Completely frozen forms of everyday idioms are inherent to both English and Russian 
languages. Let’s see some of them. 
 
Table 5. 
 
English 
English 
 
Russian 
Быть на седьмом небе 
To be in the seventh heaven 
English 
Ходить по воздуху 
To tread on air 
Russian 
Водить кого-либо за нос 
To lead someone by the nose 
English 
Натянуть шерсть на глаза кому-либо 
To draw the wool over someone’s eyes 
Russian 
Вилами по воде писано 
Written with a pitchfork on the water 
English 
Это ещё всё в воздухе 
It’s still all up in the air 
Russian 
В подмётки не годится 
Not fit to be soles of someone’s shoes 
English 
Не  годится,  чтобы  держать  свечу  кому-
нибудь 
Not fit to hold a candle to someone 
Russian 
Зарубить на носу 
To make a notch on one’s nose 
English 
Положите в свою трубку и выкурите 
Put it into your pipe and smoke it 
Russian 
Водой не разольёшь 
You couldn’t split them apart with water 
English 
Быть такими близкими (друг другу), как 
воры 
As thick as thieves 
 
The lexical peculiarity of the given type of everyday idioms is concluded in the fact that no 
words can be replaced, i.e. a combination of words is sustainable. And one more lexical peculiarity 
is that it is difficult to understand the meaning of the given everyday idioms without an awareness 
of it. 

ПƏНДЕРДІ ОҚЫТУ ƏДІСТЕМЕСІ  
     МЕТОДИКА И ТЕХНОЛОГИЯ  
ЖƏНЕ ТЕХНОЛОГИЯСЫ 
ПРЕПОДАВАНИЯ ДИСЦИПЛИН 
 
66 
 
The grammatical peculiarity is that verbs of the idioms of completely frozen forms can be 
placed in any Tense; sometimes nouns can be put in plural form while adjectives are not changeable 
and cannot be comparative. 
Now consider phrasal everyday idioms. What they have in common is that they do not rea-
dily correlate with a given grammatical part of speech and require a paraphrase longer than a word. 
For example: 
Table 6. 
 
Russian 
  
English 
Meaning 
Russian  
Душа ушла в пятки 
One’s soul has gone into one’s 
heels 
 
To get scared 
English 
 
Сердце опустилось в пятки 
One’s heart sank into one’s 
boot 
 
To get scared 
Russian 
Как об стенку горох 
Like throwing peas against the 
wall 
 
In vain 
English 
С  таким  же  успехом  можно 
разговаривать  с  кирпичной 
стенкой 
You might as well talk to a 
brick wall 
In vain 
Russian 
Как дважды два четыре 
Like two times two is four 
 
Easy, clear 
English 
Ясно, как нос на твоём лице 
As plain as the nose on your 
face 
 
Easy, clear 
Russian 
Волосы становятся дыбом 
One’s hair stands on end. 
 
To get scared 
English 
Волосы становятся на кончиках One’s hair stands like a 
mountain 
 
To get scared 
Russian 
Вставать с левой ноги 
To get up with one’s left foot 
foremost 
 
To be disgruntled 
English 
Вставать  не  с  той  стороны 
кровати 
To get out of bed on the 
wrong side 
 
To be disgruntled 
 
To understand the everyday idioms of this type they should be paraphrased because of lack 
of motivation. Still we can see lexical stability in these idioms as we can change them only partly. 
As to grammar we can conclude that verbs in such idioms are changeable. 
5. Conclusion. 
So, through the analysis of everyday idioms of two languages we found out that everyday 
idioms of Russian and English languages have similar lexical and grammatical peculiarities, even 
more they have full equivalents common for both languages. 
Thus the biggest number of equivalents in two languages can be found in the group called 
“lexemic idioms” which is the most flexible group as to lexical and grammatical changes of words 
in idioms. Completely frozen forms of everyday idioms have fewer equivalents common for both 
languages than the first group because of differences in cultural aspect but still there some 

ПƏНДЕРДІ ОҚЫТУ ƏДІСТЕМЕСІ  
     МЕТОДИКА И ТЕХНОЛОГИЯ  
ЖƏНЕ ТЕХНОЛОГИЯСЫ 
ПРЕПОДАВАНИЯ ДИСЦИПЛИН 
 
67 
 
coincidence. Phrasal idioms rarely coincide in both English and Russian languages but as to lexical 
and grammatical aspects we can conclude that this group of everyday idioms has something 
common for two languages, and that is the fact that they do not readily correlate with a given 
grammatical part of speech and require a paraphrase longer than a word. 
Idiomatic expressions create a significant portion of our everyday communication. Even at 
present modern times we use expressions whose original sense lies far away from their present 
communicative function. 
Concentration on larger (preferably holistically processed) meaning units makes it possible 
for language user to use larger language chunks to communicate recurrent stereotypes of everyday 
life without losing time with permanent re-formulation of linguistic material.  
 

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