Have you ever wondered why someone would be ‘green with envy’ or why a ‘golden opportunity’ is so much better than a regular one?
English is a very visual language, and today you’ll learn some colour-based idioms that will help make your spoken and written English a bit more colourful.
Voice message from Marta from Poland
Clothes idioms: https://inglespodcast.com/443
Food idioms: https://inglespodcast.com/423
Common English Idioms: https://inglespodcast.com/486
Chicken Idioms: https://inglespodcast.com/450
Animal Idioms: https://inglespodcast.com/522
House and Home idioms: https://inglespodcast.com/502
Crime idioms – https://inglespodcast.com/412
Work idioms – https://inglespodcast.com/422
Baseball and Cricket Idioms – https://inglespodcast.com/285
Family Idioms – https://inglespodcast.com/245
Spanish idioms that don’t translate literally to English – https://inglespodcast.com/278
Gambling Vocabulary and Idioms – https://inglespodcast.com/307
Drinking idioms and expressions – https://inglespodcast.com/364
Money Idioms and Expressions – https://inglespodcast.com/389
What Is an Idiom?
An idiom is a phrase that comes to mean something totally different from its literal meaning.
Marta’s idioms
It occurred to me out of the blue (unexpectedly)
To pass an exam with flying colours (successfully with excellent results)
It’s a golden opportunity (an excellent or rare chance that should not be missed)
We’ve got the green light (permission to go ahead)
Some more colour idioms
True colours (what someone is really like beneath the pretence)
Green with envy (very jealous)
Tickled pink (extremely pleased/appreciative)
To see red (become very angry)
To roll out the red carpet (treat someone extremely well, like royalty)
A white lie (a harmless or small lie)
A brown-noser (someone who goes to irritating extremes to please/praise someone)
Black and white (very clear, no middle-ground)
Once in a blue moon (rarely)
A grey area (lack of clarity)
To have green fingers (UK)/ a green thumb (US) – good at gardening
To catch someone red-handed (in the middle of doing something wrong or illegal)
The black sheep (the person who is different from the rest of a group in a negative way)
To be in the black (make a profit)
To be in the red (in debt)
A red herring (a piece of information that is intended to be misleading or distracting from the actual issue)
Red tape (excessive bureaucracy)
To look at/see something through rose-tinted glasses (see only the nice aspects)
To feel blue/have the blues (depressed, sad, unhappy)
…and now it’s your turn to practise your English.
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In next week’s episode: Why you still sound awkward in English (and how to fix it)
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The music in this podcast is by Pitx. The track is called ‘See You Later’