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ESL forum >
Grammar and Linguistics > Colour words in different languages, or should i call them colour idioms?
Colour words in different languages, or should i call them colour idioms?
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Ivona
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Colour words in different languages, or should i call them colour idioms?
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Just to distract you from the ongoing issues below to a much more interesting one up here. 
A physics teacher in my schol, Lidija, suggested studying COLOURS from the perspective of different subjects (Physics, Chemistry, Native language (Serbian), English, Maths ...) so i thought about it and tried to compare the way colours were used in English and Serbian respectively.
So i thought of these:
red wine (Eng) = black wine (Srb) brown bread (Eng) = black bread (Srb) blond/e hair (Eng) = blue hair green with envy = green with envy ( do we really go green??) a black day (Eng) = a black Friday (Srb) in black and white (Eng) = black on white as red as a beetroot = as red as paprika I wonder what it �s like in other languages .... And not only colour idioms ... Any idioms. They are sometimes funny. Share, people, share! Let´s make sth, not sth else. OR would you prefer another game of ASSOCIATIONS? I have a new one! ( Am i overusing smileys??  )
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22 Feb 2009
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Zora
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red as a beet = red as a tomato in Spanish...
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22 Feb 2009
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Ivona
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Lol, can we generalise now and say that we DO get green when we are envious?!?!? Let me look at my beautiful face in the mirror. I �m envous now ... (*making an effort to be even more envious*) ... Awww, i just got red! Because i kept my breath .... Something �s wrong with the idiom, don �t you think?
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22 Feb 2009
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freddie
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Hi guys!
I think the `green` is also associated with how old medical theory became a way of referring to people, people saw general ill-naturedness as bilious, or having an over-active liver making them `green`. ICK!
What about a white lie! In turkish it is a pink lie which makes more sense to me...white being so pure but pink kind of soft and sweet but maybe not quite real...
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23 Feb 2009
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freddie
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Hi guys!
I think the `green` is also associated with how old medical theory became a way of referring to people, people saw general ill-naturedness as bilious, or having an over-active liver making them `green`. ICK!
What about a white lie! In turkish it is a pink lie which makes more sense to me...white being so pure but pink kind of soft and sweet but maybe not quite real...
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23 Feb 2009
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ameliarator
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It �s not a color idiom, but I had a German friend who once told me not to put raisins in my studnets heads. �I think that �s one idiom that doesn �t translate! |
23 Feb 2009
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soleole
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There �s another colour-related saying in Spanish, though it doesn �t translate as colour related in English, that I know of...
It is �El que quiera celeste (light blue) que le cueste � which would roughly translate as �those who want light blue (maybe referring to the sky) will have to pay the price �.
I think it would be the equivalent of �No pain No gain �. But then again, it might be useless unless someone can think of an equivalent in English including a colour? or, is there such a saying in Serbian, Ivona? |
23 Feb 2009
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genzianella
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in Italian when we want to say that we have had a sleepless night we say " ho passato la notte in bianco" which roughly translates "I �ve spent a night in white" ... no idea why!!!
And when we want to say that we are moody and irritable we say "avere la luna" which means "to have the moon". For ex. you might say the equivalent of "Today the teacher has the moon"!!
Sometimes with some friends or fellow teachers we do this (=translate into English our own idioms) just to cheer us up and have a bit of a laugh!! |
23 Feb 2009
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Ivona
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Yeah, they are fun when translated that way.
Also, what i once got from a student was "I had a blind hose taken out." What he meant was an appendix!
Appendix is slepo crevo in Serbian. SLEP = blind; dead-end. CREVO=hose; instestine. So when checking in the dictionary, the students tend to take the first word offered. There �s a famous sentence that also shows the wrong use of dictionaries:
STRANA=page; side
PREVESTI=translate; get sb somewhere
So instead of, Can you get(help me) cross to the other side of the street? you can get, Can you translate me to the other page of the street.
Oh, and the LITERAL word-for-word translation into L2 is always hillarious!
Kako da ne! = How yes no! (=Yeah, right!)
Koji ti je djavo? = What´s wrong with you? (Who is your devil?)
Dva jaja na oko = Two fried eggs (Two eggs on eye) - because the yolk looks like an eye in the pan ...
What funny translations have YOU got?
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23 Feb 2009
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alien boy
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Here"s a couple of Aussie English : Standard English ones for you....
A red - head is called "Blue"
A blonde may be "Snowy"
In Japan there are such beauties as "doing Sumo in someone else �s underwear". This means to take the credit for someone else �s work.
I"ll add a few more as I think of them!
Cheers,
AB
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23 Feb 2009
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(that �s a smiley which should be panting like a puppy ... do puppies pant?? or they do sth else when they �re eager ... hmmm 
)