by Jennifer Jin
Imagine reading Harry Potter in Spanish and reaching the sentence, "Pues que las pasaría moradas para localizar aquí a Harry". If you don’t know that the phrase "pasarlas moradas" means "having a hard time", you'd be completely lost and have no idea what "passing purple ones" could ever mean. This phrase is what’s known as an idiomatic expression, and understanding the literal translation of each of the Spanish words isn’t enough to understand the actual, figurative meaning.
Idiomatic phrases can be very challenging when learning Spanish, or any new language. Even when you understand the meaning of the words and sentence structure, understanding idiomatic phrases involves piecing together an understanding that could be the opposite of literal translations. English has these phrases too, even though native speakers might not necessarily know it when they are using them. For example, when you say that you’re "feeling blue", "seeing red", or "green with envy", you’re adding cultural context that doesn’t make sense when understood on a more literal basis.
The use of colors in figurative speech shows both cultural parallels and contrasts for English speakers learning Spanish. Some concepts use the same imagery in both languages. For instance, Spanish "dar luz verde" translates literally to "give the green light", and makes perfect sense in English, given that both languages use the same traffic light metaphor to indicate giving approval for something. Both languages also use red to associate someone blushing with embarrassment in idioms like "ponerse rojo", which means literally and figuratively "to turn red". In addition, both map jealousy onto green in idiomatic expressions like "verde de envidia" and "green with envy."
However, many of the Spanish phrases branch out into interesting directions versus their English counterparts. While English speakers fantasize about a perfect romantic interest as "Prince Charming" with no color associations, Spanish speakers dream of a "príncipe azul", which translates literally to the less sensical "blue prince". Anger is also tinted differently across cultures. Spanish speakers will "estar negro" ("be black") with rage whereas English speakers will "see red". Some idioms like "poner verde a alguien" (to insult someone, but literally means "to make someone green") or "viejo verde" (slang for a lecherous old man) do not have an English direct color equivalent.
History has also influenced the way color is used in both English and Spanish. "Sangre azul", or "blue blood" refers to nobles whose complexion was light enough to see the blue veins underneath, and originated in Spain before being adopted into English. Similarly, the phrase "prensa amarilla" translates literally to "yellow journalism" which keeps the same meaning and historical origins of the English equivalent phrase.
Spanish has an abundance of color idioms beyond those already mentioned above. Take a colorful tour through these additional idioms and you’ll see some familiar patterns, similarities, contrasts to their English versions:
The color red carries both emotional and practical associations in Spanish. "Ponerse rojo como un tomate" ("to turn red as a tomato") parallels the English phrase "red as a beet", though it uses a different culinary reference point. While "al rojo vivo" literally means "to the vivid red", it actually refers to a critical point, and is similar to "red hot" in English. In financial contexts, "números rojos" means being in debt or having a negative bank balance, and echoes the English phrase "in the red".
Yellow carries more negative connotations in Spanish beyond just "prensa amarilla" and can describe someone that is weak or afraid. "Ponerse amarillo" ("to turn yellow") has a similar meaning to the English phrase "to turn pale", usually due to fear or illness. In addition, "amarillo" (literally just "yellow") can be used to mean cowardice, and the English idiom "yellow-bellied" has the same connotation.
Green in Spanish indicates inexperience in "estar verde" ("to be green"), and matches the way it’s used in English. However, unlike English, Spanish extends green to criticism via the phrase "poner verde a alguien", which literally means "to turn someone green", but has the actual meaning of criticizing someone severely.
Besides the idioms "príncipe azul" and "sangre azul", Spanish uses the word blue in other phrases like "cuello azul", which has the same meaning as the English phrase "blue collar". Notably, unlike English speakers who express sadness as "feeling blue", Spanish speakers don’t have the same melancholy association.
Purple in Spanish can connect to difficult situations, as seen from the Harry Potter example "pasarlas moradas". On the other hand, "ponerse morado" ("to turn purple") means to overindulge in food and drink, which possibly is a reference to someone flushing as they overeat. These purple expressions don’t really have color equivalents in English.
Black color idioms generally reflect difficulty, negativity, or bad luck, just like in English. "Verse negro" ("to see oneself in black") means to have a tough time doing something, while "tener la negra" ("to have the black one") expresses bad luck. While these may be difficult for an English speaker to understand, other idioms have direct equivalents. "Lista negra" ("blacklist") and "ser la oveja negra" ("to be the black sheep") both have the same figurative translations and meanings in English.
White relates to clarity and emptiness in Spanish idioms, though English doesn’t quite use the same color-based analogies. "Quedarse en blanco" ("to stay in white") translates better figuratively into "to go blank" in English. "Noche en blanco" ("night in white") is better said as a "sleepless night". Finally, "dar en el blanco" ("to give on the white") actually means "to hit the bullseye".
Understanding these idiomatic color expressions shows how cultural perceptions and history are woven into language, and adds another layer to learning Spanish beyond just literal meanings. While some idioms translate seamlessly between Spanish and English, others have more unique frameworks that show how emotions and experiences are conceptualized in another language. For language learners, understanding these phrases is another step beyond vocabulary acquisition, by not only improving fluency but also deepening cross-cultural understanding.
Jennifer Jin is the co-founder of Bueno Spanish, which focuses on the intermediate steps and mental models of Spanish language learning to make it faster and more intuitive.
More colour-related expression in Spanish
Information about Spanish | Useful Phrases | Silly Phrases | Numbers | Colours | Idioms | Family words | Time | Weather | Tongue twisters | Tower of Babel | Articles | Links | My Spanish learning adventures | My podcast about Spanish | Books about Spanish on: Amazon.com and Amazoncouk | Learn Spanish through stories
Writing systems | Language and languages | Language learning | Pronunciation | Learning vocabulary | Language acquisition | Motivation and reasons to learn languages | Arabic | Basque | Celtic languages | Chinese | English | Esperanto | French | German | Greek | Hebrew | Indonesian | Italian | Japanese | Korean | Latin | Portuguese | Russian | Sign Languages | Spanish | Swedish | Other languages | Minority and endangered languages | Constructed languages (conlangs) | Reviews of language courses and books | Language learning apps | Teaching languages | Languages and careers | Being and becoming bilingual | Language and culture | Language development and disorders | Translation and interpreting | Multilingual websites, databases and coding | History | Travel | Food | Other topics | Spoof articles | How to submit an article
[top]
You can support this site by Buying Me A Coffee, and if you like what you see on this page, you can use the buttons below to share it with people you know.
If you like this site and find it useful, you can support it by making a donation via PayPal or Patreon, or by contributing in other ways. Omniglot is how I make my living.
Note: all links on this site to Amazon.com
[top]
