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(This is re-purposed from my lesson on proverbs).
Today's vocabulary is a proverb. A proverb is a wise saying which gives you advice about how to live your life. Today's proverb is: Absence makes the heart grow fonder. So let's talk about the individual words in this proverb. First is: absence. Absence means when someone or something is not there. It also has an adjective form: absent, and perhaps you're more familiar with it as an adjective. For example, he is absent from school today, meaning he is not in school today, or he was absent from school yesterday. It can also be used as a noun though: absence with a C-E ending. For example: you have had many absences from school, or absence from school is a big problem. So absence makes the heart. Heart, of course, is the part of your body which controls the blood flow, but in English and many other languages it has two meanings: it can mean your body part but it can also mean your emotional center--how you feel. In this case, in this proverb, the heart refers to your feelings. Absence makes the heart grow. Grow, of course means to become bigger. For example babies grow into children, children grow into adults, something becomes bigger and changes into something else, but it can also be used in the sense of become. For example: I grow tired meaning I become tired. In this proverb, grow means become. Okay, absence makes the heart grow fonder. Fond is an adjective. It means to like something. For example, I am fond of her, means I like her. I am fond of pizza means I like pizza. So like is a verb, fond is an adjective, but they have the same meaning. Fonder is the comparative form of fond, meaning more fond-- to like something more.
So absence makes the heart grow fonder, meaning when something is not there, you like it more. Let me give you an example: Jim and Mary were boyfriend and girlfriend. They saw each other every day, but Jim didn't think about Mary very often. Instead Jim thought about TV or his hobbies. But then Jim moved across the world to study. He didn't see Mary for a long time. He started to really miss her. Now he thinks about her all the time. He loves her more now than he ever did before. You know what they say: absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Now that example was obviously a romantic relationship between a boyfriend or a girlfriend, but it doesn't have to be romantic. It can refer to a friendship, maybe a family member, you have somebody in your family who moved away, and all of a sudden you become much more fond of them. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. It can also be used for things that are not people. For example, maybe food. Imagine you went to another country to live and you started to really miss the food from your home country. Again, this could be another case of absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Now, I should say that not everyone agrees with this proverb. There are some people who don't think that absence makes the heart grow fonder. They think that absence makes the heart grow forgetful. So, which is it? Does absence make the heart grow fonder or does absence make the heart grow forgetful? Let me know what you think. Do you agree or disagree with this proverb? And do you have any other similar proverbs in your own language?
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