Common features

Distinctive features

1. Difference in structure

Proverb is a sentence while phraseological unit is a kind of ready-made phrase which is a part of a sentence and performs a certain syntactic function as words do.

2. Proverbs sum up the collective experience of community, so have the features of aphorism. They:

- give advice Judge a tree by its bark.

- give warning All is not gold that glitters.

- criticize Everyone calls his own geese swans.

But phraseological units always stand for a single concept, they denote object, action, while proverbs impart certain information.

1. They both are characterized by stability of structure and transferred meaning.

2. Proverbs rather frequently originate from phraseological units and some of the proverbs are easily transformed into phraseological units.

Ex. 1. The last straw breaks the camel’s back. (a proverb)

the last straw (a phraseological unit)

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2. A drowning man catches at straws. (a proverb)

to catch at a straw (straws) (a phraseological unit)

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3. to cast pearls before swine (a phraseological unit)

Don’t cast pearls before swine (a proverb).

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