Abstract
The word-stock of a language is usually enriched by units of language such as: words, word-groups and/or by phraseological units. The main difference between words and phrases lies in their form and meaning. A word is a smaller unit than a phrase. Phrases appear in languages describing the nation’s character, traditions and customs. As every nation has its own history, customs and traditions, the common history of humanity connects common things and phenomena such as: nature, war, animals, food, plants etc. Proverbs have mostly been formulated and coined on the basis of these topics. Idioms, proverbs and sayings are used to make a language colourful and fascinating; they are commonly used in all types of language: formal, informal, spoken or written. It is difficult to understand the meaning of the idioms from the words it consists of. If someone does not know that or another idiom they will not understand the whole text or speech. In our research work we would like to reveal the structural, semantic and cognitive peculiarities in the usage and development of phraseological units, mainly the most useful and colourful, ready-made parts, such as proverbs and sayings.