Russian idioms with animals

At some point in your Russian lessons, you will meet idioms with animals. Russian idioms with animals are one of the most numerous groups among all idioms of the Russian language and reflect the centuries-old observations of the appearance and habits of animals that live close by and convey the attitude of Russian people towards them. Animals and their traits in the idioms can be shown both as positive and as negative. The most numerous group of the Russian animal idioms is the one with a negative connotation. The reason for it may be that dehumanization, e.g., comparison to an animal, is usually a way to degrade a person in the speaker’s eyes. In this article, we will look at both positive and negative idioms and will start with the former.

blank

Here are the most popular Russian animal idioms with positive meanings. You may notice that the first three refer to the animal’s natural traits, but the others mostly talk about human interaction with animals.

– Как рыба в воде (Like a fish in the water) – Totally at ease

– Ласковый телёнок (Tender calf) – Very affectionate

Practice Russian with our chat bot!

Free and effective!

– Здоровый как бык (Healthy as a bull) – To be very healthy

– Мухи не обидит – He wouldn’t hurt a fly

– Брать быка за рога (To grab a bull by his horns) – To take action

– Вернуться к нашим баранам (Back to our rams) – To return to the topic

– И волки сыты, и овцы целы (Both wolfs are fed, and sheep are safe) – To find a compromise

blank

As we mentioned before, Russian animal idioms usually have a negative connotation. You may already some of them as they are often included in general Russian courses. Here are popular negative idioms with animals:

– Волк в овечьей шкуре (A wolf in a sheep’s hide) – Someone pretending to be someone else with a bad intention

– Заблудшая овечка – A lost sheep

– Согреть змею на груди – To warm a serpent on a bosom

– Медведь на ухо наступил (A bear step on their ear) – To have no ear for music

– Тёмная лошадка – Dark horse

– Крокодиловы слёзы (Crocodile’s tears) – Insincere tears

– Считать ворон (To count crows) – To gape

– Тянуть кота за хвост (To pull a cat’s tail) – To be slow to the point

– Голодный как волк (Hungry as a wolf) – To be very hungry

– Биться как рыба об лёд (To hit like a fish on the ice) – To struggle desperately

– Черепаший шаг (Turtle’s steps) – At a snail’s pace

– Извиваться ужом (To coil like a grass-snake) – To act in a sneaky manner

– Как сонная муха – Like a sleepy fly

– Какая муха его укусила? (Which fly bit him?) – What’s got him?

– Белая ворона (A white crow) – A person who is very different from those around

blank

You may notice that the meaning of the idioms is often transparent so Russian teachers at different language schools tend to use these expressions during Russian classes as an entertaining cultural exercise. Do you have similar idioms in your native language or other languages you speak? Feel free to share them in the comments!

One thought on “Russian idioms with animals

  1. Involving animals, I can think of a Dutch one (not my native language): Something “gaat naar de haaien,” literally it’s “going to the sharks.” In English we might say it’s “going to Hell.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes:

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>