Animals

male/female/baby animals

Here's a table to really test your vocabulary (this might even be tough for teachers!). You can find the answers on the worksheet. 

I've left out some of the more ridiculously obscure words (i.e. on the conceited basis that if I haven't heard of the word, nobody has).

Similes

I expect that every language makes good use of animals in their idioms – they’re pretty useful things to compare ourselves to.

Can you match these similes with the correct animal? I guess most of them make sense but one of them really doesn't so I’ve given you some help with the picture! (answers on the worksheet)

  peacock   fox   mouse   dog   bee   mule  pig   bird   ox   bat

1)  As stubborn as a…

2)  As blind as a…

3)  As greedy as a…

4)  As sick as a…

5)  As free as a…                      

6)  As sly/cunning as a…

7)  As strong as a…

8)  As proud as a…

9)  As quiet as a…

10) As busy as a…

Idioms

Of course there are many animal-related idiomatic expressions in English - I think these are the most common/useful.

to kill two birds with one stone - to save time/effort by doing jobs at the same time.

to have butterflies in your stomach - to feel nervous/excited

to be pig-headed - to be obstinate/stubborn

to let the cat out of the bag - to reveal a secret (when you shouldn't)

to go at a snail's pace - at annoyingly slow speed

to make a mountain out of a molehill - to overreact, to act as if something is more important than it really is.

Despite what numerous vocabulary books might say, one thing that no native speaker ever says is "it's raining cats and dogs" - but I will address this pet hate (no pun intended) in another post!

I'm always interested to hear what similar (or different) idioms or similes you have in your language if you want to leave some in the comments below.

And to finish, predictably, here is a little clip - even if you're one of the 122 million people (and counting) who've already seen it, you must surely want to see it one more time...don't you?

A worksheet for teachers (and students) with exercises and answers for all the above vocabulary can be downloaded for free here: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B1LCyaQkPPAhRklDRWZPUE5rRnM