Pie Corbett: Working with Idioms and Proverbs

Working with Idioms and Proverbs

Take a proverb (a popular expression) and innovate.

‘A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush’

might become

‘A camel in the park is worth six in the theatre aisle’.

In Cornwall, they have an interesting idiom that is worth discussing, ‘the tongue-less man gets his land took’. I innovated on that expression:

In Cornwall they say,

The tongue-less man gets his tongue took.

In Argyllshire they say,

The thoughtless camel gets its hump stolen.

In Gloucestershire they say,

The worthless crown gets its thorns trimmed.

In Yorkshire they say,

The hopeless hero gets his bravery burned.

In Liverpool they say,

The harmless rumour gets its beard singed

In Galway Bay they say,

The timeless clock gets its hands cuffed.

Try playing the game where expressions are taken literally, e.g.

The detectives said

the books had been cooked.

(They tasted good).

My teacher said we could

have a free hand.

(I added it to my collection).

Some people bottle up

their feelings.

(I keep mine in a jar).

My Mother said,

“Hold your tongue!”

(It was too slippery).

In the school races,

I licked everyone in the class.

(It made my tongue sore).

Here is a bank of possible idioms to play with:

How to Invent new proverbs.

First, take an even number of proverbs.

Next, cut them in half.

Still waters  /   run deep.

Too many cooks  /  spoil the broth.

Finally, stick them together in the wrong order:

Still waters spoil the broth.

Too many cooks run deep.

Pie Corbett

Pie Corbett is a teacher-poet – his collection ‘Evidence of `Dragons’ is used in many classrooms. He has published and edited over 250 books, runs ‘Talk for Writing’ and was made an honorary Doctor of Letters for services to creativity, poetry and social justice by the Open University. He runs online training for teachers and every Monday works with about 6,000 children on @TeachingLive, running writing sessions of poetry, creative nonfiction and story.