Language Trainers Blog

Today we are looking at colours in Spanish (los colores) and some of the idioms they’re used in.

The Spanish for white is blanco, which also means light, fair, blank or cowardly. When something is very white, you can say in Spanish that it is  más blanco que el jazmín / más blanco que el papel (whiter than jasmine / paper). If you roll your eyes or look ecstatic you poner los ojos en blanco (make the eyes white). If you haven’t got the fainest idea about something you could say estoy en blanco (I’m in white/blank), which is similar to the phrase ‘my mind’s a blank’, and if you have trouble sleeping you might have a white night – pasar la noche en blanco.

The word for black is negro, which also means dark, swarthy, gloomy, atrocious or awful. If someone you know is a real pessimist, you could say lo ve todo negro (he sees everything as black), and if things are not working out for you, you could say la cosa se pone negra (things are going black). What is called is brown sugar is considered black/dark in Spanish – azúcar negra.

Red or rojo is associated with blushing, lipstick, excitement and rage. You might say that you’re purple with rage in English, but in Spanish you go red with rage – ponerse rojo de la ira.

Green or verde has associations with jealousy and envy – estar verde de envida (to be green with envy), and with ignorance – está verde (he’s very green / he doesn’t know anything). It is also used to indicate that you have had your fill of food or other things – darse un verde (to eat a lot / one’s fill); darse un verde de algo (to have enough of something).

When learning a language in a class or with friends there are various games you can play to make the experience fun and more effective.

Who/what am I?
This is a game you can play in any language which involves people having to guess who or what they are using only questions that can be answered with yes or no. So you can ask “Am I on TV?” but not “What am I famous for?”. The names of the people, occupations or things are attached in places where the guessers can’t read them, such as on their backs or foreheads. In classes it’s often the teacher who chooses the people or things. This game is good for practising questions and answers, and for describing people and things. A variation called botticelli, which involves one person thinking of a famous person and the others having to guess who it is.

Kim’s game
This involves building up longer and longer lists of things, often in alphabetical order. It might start with one person saying “I went shopping and I bought an apple”, then the next person says “I went shopping and I bought an apple and a banana”. It’s a good way to practise using vocabulary and can focus on different types of words.

Changing sentences
You start with a sentence and each person changes one aspect of it at time. For example, you could start with the sentence “I went to the cinema last Saturday”, then change it to “I went to the theatre last Saturday”, then “I’m going to a concert next Saturday”, and so. This is a good way to practise using your grammar and vocabulary.

The English word chocolate comes via Spanish from the Nahuatl word, xocolatl, which means ‘bitter water’. The words for chocolate in most other languages come from the same root, either directly, or via other languages such as English.

The ancient peoples of Central and South America used cacao as a food, a drink and even a currency. They prepared the drink by fermenting, roasting and grinding up cacao seeds and making them into a paste which they mixed with chilies, cornmeal and other ingredients. Among the Maya, most people could drink this special beverage, but the Aztecs saw it as a sacred drink and only permitted rulers, priests, decorated soldiers, and honored merchants to partake of it. Sauces made from bitter cacao and chilies remain popular in Mexico, where they are used to accompany meat.

When the Spanish arrived in Mexico in the 16th century they recognised that cocao was valuable and started sending it back to Spain. They began to make cacao drinks with cinnamon, other spices and sugar, and eventually the rest of Europe started drinking chocolate as well, although for it remained the drink of the elite for several centuries due to the high cost of the ingredients.

By the 18th century it was possible to mass-produce chocolate bars and other cacao-based sweets cheaply and they became available to everyone.

There are many interesting colour-related expressions in French, some of which have different meanings to their English equivalents.

White or blanc, which also means pale or blank, can signify that something is without risks – à blanc – and that it is pure – blanc comme neige (white as snow). It is also used to refer to novices – des blancs becs (the white beaks) – and to refer to linen, as in magasin de blanc (linen/whites shop).  If you are very frightened you might turn white as a sheet, but in French you turn white as a packet of aspirins – blanc comme un cachet d’aspirine.

Black is associated with illegal activity such as blackmarketering, or faire du marché noir, and moonlighting or travailler au noir. A black novel or roman noir is the equivalent of a crime novel, and when you want to be sure or something, you ask for it to be put down in black and white, or noir sur blanc.

In French you can go red with emotion – rouge d’émotion – or embarrassment – devenir rouge comme un cerise (to go as red as a cherry). If you stay out in the sun too long you might go as red as poppy, a peony, a crayfish or a tomato – rouge comme un coquelicot, une pivoine, une écrevisse, une tomate.

You might also go blue with rage – bleu de colère – or green with fear – vert de peur.

When learning a foreign language associating gestures with words can help you to remember them. The gestures are stored in parts of the memory that handle movement, while the words are stored in parts concerned with sound. Linking the two together helps reinforce the memory. If you also learn the written forms of the words, and visualise them when you think of the words, you can strengthen the memory even more.

You could even try adding particular tastes, smells and/or textures to your memories of words, especially to words for foods, drink and living things. The richer the associations, the more likely your are to remember the words.

Research has found that babies who gesture a lot when they talk, and whose parents use plenty of gestures when talking to them, tend to have a larger vocabulary by the time they start school. Another study found that people remember things they’ve heard better if they were accompanied by gestures.

I have been experimenting associating foreign words with British Sign Language signs, and am finding this a good way to memorise the words.

So don’t be afraid to weave those hands around when learning and speaking foreign languages.

False friends or false cognates are words that sound and/or look the same in two languages but  different meaning. While there are a significant number of words in German that sound and/or look the same as words in English, for example April, arm and film, not all familiar-sounding German words mean what you expect.

The following German words look and/or sound like English words but have different meanings:

• Absolvieren = to complete a course or exam (absolve = lossprechen)
• Artist = circus or theatrical performer (artist = Künstler)
• Bald = soon (bald = kahl, glatzköpfig) e.g. Er hat eine Glatze = He’s bald
• Chef = boss, head of the department (chef = Chefkoch, Küchenchef, Koch)
• Direktion = (office) administration / management (direction = Richtung)
• Expertise = report (expertise = Sachverstand)
• Fabrik = factory (fabric = Stoff, Gewebe)
• Gift = poison (gift = geschenk)
• Gymnasium = secondary/high school (gymnasium = Turnhalle, Sporthalle)
• Kollege = colleague, co-worker (college = Hochschule, Universität)
• Komfortabel = luxurious (comfortable = bequem, gemütlich)
• Mist = manure, dung (mist = Dunst, leichter Regen)
• Objekt = house, piece of property (object = Ziel)
• Pension = guest house, small hotel (pension = Rente)
• Phantasie/Fantasie = imagination (fantasy = Tagtraum)
• Sender = broadcaster, (radio/TV) station (sender = Absender)
• Transparent = banner, placard (transparent = durchsichtig)
• Roman = novel (Roman = Römer)
• Rat = advice, counsel (rat = Ratte), e.g. Rathaus = townhall

When learning a new language, it’s useful to know how to say the equivalent of thing, whatsit, thingummy, whatchamacallit, etc, when you don’t know or can’t remember the word for something. This a strategy native speakers use frequently, so there’s no harm in using it when speaking a foreign language. It helps if you can also ask people how to say the word you’re searching for in their language. Such words are known as placeholders – they take the place of words you can’t recall.

Here are some placeholders in various languages include:

• Catalan: daixonses, daixonsis, dallonses, dallonsis
• Czech: tutu, toto, tata, tentononc
  
• Danish: dims, dingenot, himstregims, tingest
• Dutch: dinges, ding, dingetje
• French: truc, machin, machintruc, machinchose, bidule, toutim
  
• German: Ding, Dingens, Dingsbums, Dingsda
• Italian: roba, coso, affare, aggeggio
• Japanese: なになに (naninani)
• Mandarin Chinese: 東西 [东西] (dōngxi), 東東 [东东] (dōngdōng)
• Portuguese: treco, troço, bagulho, parada, coisa, trem, negócio
• Spanish: cosa, chisme, fulano (of people), ése, ésa, cacharro
  

When learning a new language it’s important you listen to it as every opportunity.  At first you probably won’t understand much, if anything, but it is still worth doing as you will be tuning your ear and your brain to the sounds and rhythms of the language.

Some of the sounds in the new language will probably be completely new to you and you may find it difficult to hear them and pronounce them. If you listen to the language regularly though, your ears will become better at distinguishing sounds and words, and you will find it easier to pronounce them. You will probably find it easier to remember words, phrases and even grammatical constructions as well, especially if they crop up frequently in the things you listen to.

There’s a good choice of listening material for many different languages, including language lessons, podcasts, radio, TV, songs, videos, and so on. These are all available online, and also via satellite and digital radio and TV in some areas. So you should be able to find something that interests you. If you download recordings of the language you’re learning to your mp3 player you can listen to them wherever you happen to be, and this might make it easier to find time to listen to them.

You don’t have to listen closely to everything – even having material playing in the background is useful – so you could be absorbing a new language while you’re doing other things, such as commuting, working, studying, cooking, shopping, etc. It is also useful to listen to some things in more detail and to try to understand as much of them as possible. If you’re just starting with the language, you could try to get a basic gist of the material. Names of people and places are can help with this, especially in news reports. As you get to know the language better, you could try summarising, translating or transcribing what you’re hearing.

Unfortunately you cannot learn a language simply by listening to it a lot – some other kinds of studying and practice are also needed – but listening does play are very important role in the process.

Greetings tend to be quite formal in Germany even between friends. It’s usual to shake hands say Guten Morgen (Good morning), Guten Tag (Good day/afternoon), Guten Abend (Good evening) or in more informal contexts, Hallo (Hello). You add the person’s name with their titles, e.g. Herr/Frau (Mr/Mrs), if you know them. If someone has several titles, e.g. Herr Doktor Professor, use them all.

Until you know someone well, it’s a good idea to stick to the formal form of address (Sie) and language. However using the informal Du for you is becoming more common, especially among people under 30. First names are usually only used when you know someone well, or in informal situations, such as at parties.

When you go into a waiting room or a lift, or if you’re sharing a table with someone, it’s usual to exchange greetings with them. Greeting strangers on the street isn’t customary, but doing so when walking in the countryside or mountains is more common.

The Germans enjoy talking about politics and are not being rude if they ask you direct questions about your political views. They also tend to speak their minds about other people, rather than using white lies or euphemisms to avoid hurting feelings, as is more common in the UK. They prefer not to talk about money and financial matters though.

When eating with other people it’s considered rude to start eating before everyone has been served, and you usually wish the other diners Guten Appetit before getting stuck in. Using a knife and fork rather than just a fork is best in formal situations. It’s also considered polite to place your wrists or forearms on the table, though not your elbows.

If you see a bell in a German pub, don’t be tempted to ring it unless you’re prepared to buy a drink from everyone there.

False friends or false cognates are words that sound and/or look the same in two languages but different meaning. Thousands of words in French look like and/or sound similar to English words and most of them have the same or a similar meaning, for example banjo, duplication and mayonaise. However there are quite a few that mean either completely different things, or have somewhat different but related meanings.

The following French words look and/or sound like English words but have different meanings:

• achever = to finish, end, complete, reach. (to achieve = accomplir, réaliser, atteindre)
• actuellement = currently (actually = en fait)
• assister = to attend (to assist = aider)
• blesser = to wound (to bless = bénir)
• car = because, for (car = voiture)
• chair = skin (chair = chaise)
• chance = luck (a chance = une possibilité)
• chat = cat (to chat = causer)
• caution = deposit, guarantee, bail (caution = prudence)
• déçevoir =to disappoint (to deceive = tromper, duper)
• demander = to ask (to demand = exiger)
• four = oven (four = quatre)
• glace = icecream (glass = verre)
• large = wide (large = grand, vaste)
• manger = to eat (manger = mangeoire)
• pain = bread (pain = doleur, mal)
• piles = batteries (piles = hémorroïdes)
• préservatif = condom (preservative = conservateur)
• réalisation = completion, accomplishment (realisation = prise de conscience)
• roman = novel (Roman = Romain)
• sensible = sensitive (sensible = sage, raisonnable)