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  • Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Lesson 370. Today we are going to cover the

  • difference between a proverb, a fable, and a parable. Yeah. Because sometimes

  • students mix up what's the difference between these three. All right. Let's look

  • at the first one. Which is probably the most common. We hear about proverbs more

  • than any of these. A proverb is a short saying or phrase. That's a key part

  • right away. Because it's really more like a statement or a saying. Where the next two,

  • fable and parables will be stories. All right. So a proverb is a short saying or

  • phrase that expresses a truism. All right. What's a truism ? A truism is something

  • that can be recognized in life often through common sense or practical

  • experience. A proverb states that the truth and allows the listener to think

  • about it and it implies advice, but it doesn't really push it on you. You know,

  • like it's specifically trying to you know, try very hard to teach you. But by

  • recognizing it, hopefully you'll figure it out yourself.

  • "Haste makes waste" would be a good example of a good example of a proverb. Okay. Meaning you

  • know, if you fool around too much. Haste. You try to hurry too much, you're probably

  • going to make mistakes. This could be recognized probably all over the world. It

  • doesn't matter what country or culture you're in. Most people would probably

  • agree that you know, if you try to rush too much, often it causes you to make

  • more mistakes than less mistakes and you end up wasting more time and energy. So

  • this is more like a typical proverb. Okay. Let's look at a fable. Now a fable is a

  • short story. So it is a story. Usually using anthropomorphism or

  • personification. All right. This is basically the idea of giving human

  • characteristics ... human characteristics or or behavior to something that is not

  • human, especially animals or other objects. The goal of a fable is to tea

  • a lesson. Typical examples can be found in Aesop's fables. Yeah. Remember Aesop is

  • probably the most famous one. Even though there are other fables in other

  • countries and cultures too, but he's the most famous and he definitely liked to

  • use a lot of animals. Remember I think I've talked about him before in some

  • videos. You know, he used to be a slave and he purposely didn't want to use real

  • identities. So using an animal was a way of escaping, but he was really talking about

  • people. But this way he can hide what he was talking about them by using the

  • animals and still teach a lesson at the same time. So he is well known for fables.

  • Examples include like you know, " The boy who cried wolf " would be a good example

  • or "The hare and the tortoise. " Most people are familiar with these two. You know, the

  • boy that was fooling around, calling you know, wolf, wolf, wolf. Everybody would come out and then

  • nobody would believe him after a while. And the hare, the hare meaning like the

  • rabbit the turtle. The hare and the tortoise. They had the race and remember

  • the rabbit that went to sleep and you know the the turtle ended up beating him.

  • Okay. So Let's continue. Fables sometimes are remembered by key lines that sum up

  • the lesson. So , so really what I mentioned here like the boy who cried wolf. Now

  • that's the fable , but you could use like a key line like just to cry wolf and

  • this could almost be used or this could be used as kind of like a problem.

  • The same with you know, the other one like slow and steady wins the race. You

  • know with the hare and the tortoise. Because you know, the , the turtle was the

  • one that didn't give up. He just .. even though he's moving slow, he never gave up

  • he continued and he won mostly because the rabbit fooled around. Which is kind

  • of another lesson of that story. All right. Let's continue. Let's look at

  • parable. A parable, like a fable has the goal of teaching a lesson , especially a

  • moral lesson. Yeah. So parables probably focus more on morals. However, it usually

  • does not include anthropomorphism. So it usually does

  • like animals talking or using some sort of imagination like this. And it focuses on

  • human behavior. They tend to be more religious or spiritual. Okay. In nature,

  • typical examples are stories told by Jesus in the Bible such as " The Good

  • Samaritan. " Remember the guy that was left in the desert. He was robbed they stole

  • his clothes and nobody would help him And then finally the one person that did

  • help him was usually like somebody that was typically his enemy. But he still

  • decided to help him you know, it's the Good Samaritan or " The Prodigal Son. "

  • Remember the son that left the family and went and fooled around for the

  • longest time and you know kind of deserted the family. And then the older

  • brother there who was the one that worked hard and stayed with family but

  • when prodigal son finally returns. His father's so happy you know, throws all

  • kinds of parties for him and even sacrifices the best animals and you know

  • but there obviously was a lesson in this story too. So this will mean by the

  • prodigal son. So this is more like a parable. Okay. All right. Anyway. So , so

  • remember both fables and parables are actually stories. Both tried to teach a

  • lesson. Okay. But you know, a fable is a little bit more fantasy and using like

  • animals that talk. This one's more religious and proverbs don't have to be

  • stories they're they are actually just very short more like statements or

  • truisms. Okay. Anyway, I hope you got t. I hope it's clear. Thank you for your time.

  • Bye-bye.

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Lesson 370. Today we are going to cover the

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