Popular wisdom in the form of proverbs and sayings in every nation lives and is passed down from generation to generation from the time when there was no written language. They laid human observation of the world, the actions of other people and warnings to posterity. Sayings with numerals are no exception.
Modern people, uttering famous statements, do not even think that they use the words of ancient folk wisdom in their speech. So firmly sayings and catchphrases came into our speech, like numbers.
Numbers in human life
Let's talk about it. Numbers have come into our lives so long that we do not even pay attention to it. They surround us everywhere, but this is just information transmitting some messages to our consciousness. For example, the number of the minibus, the price tag in the store, the size of the costume you like, all these are numbers. Proverbs and sayings with numerals also became familiar in our everyday life (“the first pancake is lumpy” - people say, and people around understand that pancakes are not necessary here, just something in business went wrong).
For ancient people, numbers represented a riddle that they were trying to solve. They saw a secret meaning in each figure. So, zero was an emptiness for them, which was reflected in such popular sayings as “zero attention” (ignoring, indifference), “round zero” (does not represent anything).
The unit in the popular understanding is unity.
A deuce is a duality or the opposite, as the proverbs with numerals say, such as "never to be young twice."
Pythagoras claimed "everything in the world is numbers." The folk wisdom of understanding numbers is at the heart of his sayings, proverbs and riddles.
Sayings with numbers
Sayings are short and precise expressions that do not have completeness. Many of them resort to numbers in their content to make it easier to convey a wise observation - “seven Fridays in a week” (plans often change).
Sayings with numerals can convey various observations and conclusions:
- About greed - to sit between two chairs (it’s hard to make a choice), avaricious pays twice talking about people who buy cheap and obviously low-quality goods.
- About quickness - to kill two birds with one stone means in the course of doing not one thing, but several. “One foot here, the other there” talks about the urgency of doing things.
- About the uncertainty of the situation - “the grandmother said in two,” which means this or that, the unknown.
- About the ill-conceived actions - "from one word a quarrel forever."
As can be seen from the above examples, people have long been able to notice the essence of what is happening and through short sayings with a numeral to transmit it to posterity for edification.
Proverbs with numbers
A proverb is complete concise statements of an usually edifying character. The main topics that are discussed in it:
- The theme of friendship is one of the most popular in folklore. People always appreciated this quality and, through proverbs and sayings with numbers, gave youth advice to cherish friendship. Woe for two is half-hearth, joy for two is two joys, people say so. An old friend is better than the new two, so a short statement teaches you how to protect “old” trusted friends.
- The topic of the search for happiness did not pass by sayings with numerals and proverbs. “Two centuries do not live, one century - do not grieve,” wise old people gave youth advice. “One spring in the homeland is better than a hundred springs on the other side” - a statement about happiness in the native land.
- The warning not to act silly and thoughtlessly is also a favorite topic of the old sages when communicating with youth. “One fool said, and another did,” they say about those who commit acts on someone else’s orders without considering the consequences.
All proverbs, sayings, phraseologisms with numbers teach people wisdom better than long moralizing.
Phraseologisms with numbers
People use winged expressions everywhere, without thinking about where phraseological units came from in their life. The main reason people use them is to enhance or color the information that they want to convey. Thus, phraseologized speech becomes more emotional, vibrant and memorable.
- “Like two drops of water,” they talk about similar objects or people, emphasizing the absence of obvious differences between them.
- "Seventh water on jelly" means very distant relatives.
- “One field is a berry”, they speak of similarity in committing unseemly acts, both related to each other and distant people.
- The expression “one like a finger” immediately explains that a person is single or an orphan.
Using phraseologisms in their speech, like proverbs, sayings, riddles with numbers, people from all countries enliven their speech, make it more colorful, but it makes it difficult to learn foreign languages. Ignorance of colloquial turns in someone else's speech can give it an ambiguous or incomprehensible meaning, which often leads to comic situations.
Mysteries with numbers
Today, the riddle is a type of children's folklore, an entertainment aimed at developing a child’s logic, attention and associative thinking. In ancient times, puzzles were part of the test of young people in their sharpness of mind and quick wits. Today, unfortunately, this is folklore, which is studied a little in kindergartens and primary schools.
Riddles, like Russian sayings with numbers, help children to associate a question with an answer using numbers. For example, “one leg and a hat, but no head. What it is?".
When naming the number of objects, the riddle as it pushes the baby to answer - "two are watching, two are listening, and one is talking."
In order to make it more interesting for children to study counting, it is useful to use puzzles with numbers in math classes. For example, “A hunter walked into the forest. Met two hunters, but one mushroom picker. How many people are in the forest? ”
Riddles in which you need to not only count, but also be careful, develop both logical and associative thinking: “The battleship has two front legs, two rear, two left and two right. How many legs does an armadillo have? ”
Thus, riddles, as well as sayings with a numeral, help children learn numbers and mathematical actions in a playful way. Such lessons are remembered for a lifetime.
Learning the numbers at school
People encounter numbers daily throughout their lives, and begin to study at a very young age. To make it easier for a child to understand what semantic load numbers carry in colloquial speech, you can familiarize yourself with this topic using folklore. For example, 5 sayings with numbers, where they carry a certain meaning, giving phrases capacity.
- “One is not a warrior in the field” - the word “one” is the main thing in this phrase and means that a person will not win the battle alone. Thus, using a numeral, folk wisdom explains that one person cannot be defeated.
- “They are waiting for the promised three years” - with the help of the number three the fulfillment of the promise is delayed for a long time. So the people talked about people who do not keep their word. By adding a numeral, the characteristic for optional people was significantly reduced, without losing its meaning.
- “Like the back of your hand” means being knowledgeable about what is happening or about the subject matter of the conversation.
- “Measure seven times, cut one” is better than any long instructions to explain that in no case you can rush. You should always think carefully before you get to work.
- “Ten knowledgeers are not worth the one who does.” Using numbers of different proportions, the people just noticed that the man of action is better than the loafers of the "experts."
Thus, creating sayings with a numeral, the wise people in one short phrase revealed the essence of what is happening.
Collective numbers in sayings
Studying numbers as part of speech, students are in high school in the Russian language lessons. To memorize the topic was easier, it can be carried out in a game form, using sayings with numbers (grade 6).
Quantitative numerals are well remembered if children are explained the meaning of sayings with them. For example, “one head on the shoulders” means that a person must think and make decisions independently, as well as be responsible for them.
Ordinal numerals used in folk sayings indicate the sequence or order of events. For example, “second wind” explains that if there seems to be no more strength, one can overcome weakness and find them.
“Seven do not expect one”, “three will condemn, ten will judge”, “two deaths will not happen, one cannot be avoided” - sayings with collective numerals help remember this part of the speech
Lessons held in this vein bring joy to children and are remembered for a long time, as well as the material studied on them.
English proverbs with numbers
Proverbs, sayings, riddles and phraseological units are inherent in the wisdom of all peoples. Reasonable British in this case, too, is no exception. Many of their statements have a long history revealing their national features. For example, “let the thing lie with you for seven years, but in the end it can be used”, it means that there is a sense in everything and there is a benefit from everything, you just have to find them.
Often sayings of other nations are similar in meaning to statements in Russian. For example, the English version of “Kill two birds with one stone” (literally “kill two birds with one stone”) has the analogy of “kill two birds with one stone” in Russian.
This suggests that observation is inherent in all peoples, regardless of the language they speak.
Eastern wisdom
It is also well known that the eastern sages were able to notice everything around them and left their observations to the descendants. People from different countries have faced them since childhood. For example, the proverb from Persia “two hundred spoken words are not worth it and half of the work done” accurately observes what to say and do is not the same thing.
“One good experience is more important than seven wise teachings,” an Arab proverb teaches, and Korean wisdom advises “not to put things off the shelf” - “postpone not a day - it’ll be delayed by ten”.
As can be seen from the examples, at all times and in different countries, people used numbers, making short instructions to their descendants.
Brief sayings in everyday life
Very often people use aphorisms and winged expressions, without thinking about their origin, so they firmly and habitually entered into their lives.
Saying the usual “forbidden fruit is sweet” to a person who is striving for what he is denied, people do not remember that this is Ovid’s statement.
The same goes for short statements that contain numbers. “Zero attention” is said about an indifferent person, “beyond the seven seas”, which means very far.
Sayings of the Ancient World
As they say that "everything is new, it is well forgotten old", the same can be said about sayings with numbers. Ancient people were able to notice what was happening in the world around them and left us their legacy. For example, in ancient Egypt they said so to a puffy man - "Do not assume that you alone are omniscient!" Latins, who lived 1,500 years ago, left a great legacy of wisdom, for example, “tripping over the same stone twice” still means making the same mistakes. It was customary among the Ancient Indians to say “you cannot make a garland out of one flower”, which means today that you cannot do it alone.
As can be seen from the examples, little has changed after millennia. There are the same problems, wrong actions and noble deeds that fit perfectly into the wisdom of the ancients.
Meaning of Sayings
Sayings, proverbs and riddles were inherited by people from their ancestors. The task of mankind is to acquaint the young generation with them, so that they continue to live in every nation, conveying the wisdom of people who have long been dead. Studying folklore from a very young age is the right approach to ensure that the eternal is with people in the present. This is the only way to consolidate popular wisdom in the minds of people and pass it on.