Colorless green ideas sleep furiously

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This phrase was composed by the linguist Noam Chomsky in his 1957 book, Syntactic Structures, to demonstrate that a sentence can be grammatically correct, but semantically nonsensical. Various people have attempted to explain the meaning of this sentence, with varied success. This page contains versions of this phrase in a variety of languages.

Language Colorless green ideas sleep furiously
Afrikaans Kleurlose groen idees slaap verwoed.
Arabic
(Modern Standard)
الأفكار الخضراء عديمة اللون تنام بغضب
Belarusian Бескаляровыя зялёныя ідэі спяць раз’юшана
(B′eskaĺarovyja z′aĺonyja іdeі sp′ać razjushana)
Breton Ar joñjoù glas hemp liv a gouska furiet.
Bulgarian Безцветни зелени идеи спят яростно.
(Beztsvetni zeleni idei spyat yarostno)
Catalan Les idees verdes incolores dormen furiosament.
Central Dusun Modop i kitoilaan do kotomohon dot aiso wotik miampai do mogod-togod.
Coastal Kadazan Modop i kitoihaan do kotomohon do aiso votik miampai do masang-asang.
Chinese
(Cantonese)
冇色嘅綠色諗法嬲爆爆噉瞓住
(Móuhsīk ge luhksīk námfaat nàubaaubaau gám fan zyuh)
Chinese
(Mandarin)
沒有顏色的綠色想法怒氣沖沖地睡著 [没有颜色的绿色想法怒气冲冲地睡着]
(Méiyǒu yánsè de lǜsè xiǎngfǎ nùqì chōngchōng de shuìzhe)
Croatian Bezbojne zelene zamisli bjesomučno spavaju.
Danish Farveløse grønne idéer sover rasende.
Dutch Kleurloze groene ideeën slapen woedend.
Esperanto Senkoloraj verdaj ideoj furioze dormas.
French Les idées vertes sans couleur dorment furieusement.
Les idées vertes incolores dorment furieusement
German Farblose grüne Ideen schlafen heftig.
Farblose grüne Ideen schlafen wütend.
Hungarian Színtelen zöld eszmék dühösen alszanak.
Irish (Gaelic) Codlaíonn smaointe glasa neamhdhathach go fíochmhar
Italian Idee verdi senza colore dormono furiosamente.
Japanese 無色の緑色の考えが猛烈に眠る
(mushoku no midoriiro no kangae ga mōretsu ni nemuru)
Kapampangan Sásamál lang mátudtúd deng aláng kúleng aluntyáng/bérding kaisípan.
Latin Incoloratae virides cogitationes dormiunt saeviter.
Malay Idea kehijauan tanpa warna tidur dengan marah.
Polish Bezbarwne zielone idee wściekle śpią.
Portuguese As ideias verdes incolores dormem furiosamente.
Russian Бесцветные зелёные идеи спят яростно.
(Bestsvetnyye zelyonye idei spyat yarostno)
Spanish Las ideas verdes incoloras duermen furiosamente.
Las ideas verdes sin color duermen furiosamente.
Ideas incoloras verdes duermen furiosas.
Swedish Färglösa gröna idéer sover rasande.
Turkish Renksiz yeşil fikirler kızgın bir şekilde uyurlar.
Urdu بیرنگ سبز خیالات غصے سے سوتے ہیں.
(be-rang sabz khayalat ghuse se sote hain.)
Värmlandic Ferjlös grön idéer sôv vrédesfullt
Vietnamese Những ý kiến xanh (lá cây/lục) không màu sắc ngủ giận dữ.
仍意見𩇢(蘿𣘃/綠)空牟色㬳𢚷㺞.
Welsh Syniadau gwyrdd di-liw sy'n cysgu yn gynddeiriog

Page suggested by Igor Kusin, with contributions and corrections by Đào Chung Văn, Varga Viktor, Jeronimo Constantina, Andreas Emanuel Berg, Marcos Bermúdez, Yahya Azeri, Елена Христова, Patricia Asunja, Ian You and Connor Hogan.

Here's a little song I wrote inspired by this phrase:

Simon Ager · Colourless Green Ideas

Links and sources

Information about this phrase
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorless_green_ideas_sleep_furiously
http://www.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/proseDP/text/colorlessIdeas.html
http://forum.wordreference.com/threads/colorless-green-ideas-sleep-furiously.1250832/
http://forum.unilang.org/viewtopic.php?t=31224
http://forum.wordreference.com/threads/colourless-green-ideas-sleep-furiously.1521251/

People who have contributed to this section

If you would like to make any corrections or additions to this page, or if you can provide recordings, please contact me.

Silly phrases

My hovercraft is full of eels | Stop the world, I want to get off! | Say cheese! | Colorless green ideas sleep furiously | I am the king of the chickens | Thingamajig

Silly phrases in particular languages

Czech, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Finnish German, Romanian, Russian, Scottish Gaelic, Spanish, Swedish, Welsh

Other phrases

Index by phrase | Index by language | Index by language family | Phrase finder

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