Have You Ever Thought about How We Form the Idioms/Phrases?

In a conversation, we do not realize how much-and how- we make use of idioms and phrases. Recently, I have deciphered a speech into text. The man used so many idioms and phrases that I am surprised. Later on, I have begun to pay attention to my speech as far as I can. We really use them a lot 🙂 I also realized that our ancestors attributed some meanings to the body parts. One of their favorites is “the eye”. Yes, we have tens of phrases related to the eye at some point. I tried to find the most popular ones, but you can always add more!

 Blink of an eye:   If something happens in the blink of an eye, it happens nearly instantaneously, with hardly enough time to notice it. “The pickpocket disappeared in the blink of an eye.”

Catch somebody’s  eye: If someone catches your eye, you find them attractive. “The pretty girl near the door caught his eye.”

Clap/lay/set eyes on someone: If you clap eyes on someone or something, you look at or see them. “I’ve heard of him but I’ve never clapped eyes on him.”

More than meets the eye: When something (or someone) is more complicated, difficult or interesting that it appears, it is said that there is more than meets the eye. “He said he simply sold his shares, but I think there’s more to it than meets the eye.”

See eye to eye with someone: To see eye to eye with somebody means that you agree with them.

Turn a blind eye to something: If you turn a blind eye to something, you ignore it intentionally.

The apple of your eye: If somebody is the apple of your eye, this means that you like them  very much. “My grandson is the apple of my eye”.

The eye of the storm: A person or organization who is in the eye of the storm is deeply involved in a difficult situation which affects a lot of people. “The minister was often in the eye of the storm during the debate on the war in Iraq.”

Eagle eyes: Someone who has eagle eyes sees or notices things more easily than others. “Tony will help us find it – he’s got eagle eyes!”

Eyes in the back of one’s head: To say that someone has eyes in the back of their head means that they are very observant and notice everything happening around them. “You need eyes in the back of your head to look after young children.”

Feast one’s eyes on something: If you feast your eyes on something, you are delighted and gratified by what you see. “As he drove along the coast, he feasted his eyes on the beautiful scenery.”

Eyes like a hawk: If you’ve got eyes like a hawk, you’ve got good eyesight and notice every detail. “Of course Dad will notice the scratch on his car – he’s got eyes like a hawk!  ”

Half an eye: If you have or keep half an eye on something, you watch something without giving it your full attention. “She kept half en eye on the tv screen while she was preparing dinner.”

In one’s mind’s eye: If you can visualise something, or see an image of it in your mind, you see it in your mind’s eye. “I can see the village in my mind’s eye but I can’t remember the name.”

In the twinkling of an eye: This expression means ‘very fast’ or ‘instantaneously’. “Public opinion can change in the twinkling of an eye.”

Look someone in the eyes: If you look someone in the eye, or eyes, you look at them directly so as to convince them that you are telling the truth, even though you may be lying.

Eyes wide open: If you do something with your eyes open, you are fully aware of what you are doing. “I took on the job with my eyes wide open, so I’m not complaining.”

A sight for sore eyes: This expression refers to a person or thing you are happy to see. “Sam! You’re a sight for sore eyes!  Haven’t seen you in a long time.”

Raise eyebrows: If you raise your eyebrows at something, you show surprise or disapproval by the expression on your face. “When the boss arrived in jeans, there were a lot of raised eyebrows.”

Spit in someone’s eye: If you spit in someone’s eye, you treat that person with disrespect or contempt. “You father raised you as best he could. Don’t start spitting in his eye.”

Not bat an eyelid: To say that somebody does not bat an eyelid means that they do not seem shocked or surprised, nor are they nervous or worried. They show no emotion.

Thank you learn-english-today.com for this wonderful compilation.

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Top 10 Common CV Mistakes

I think the interview is the vital part to get a job; however, if you do not have a proper CV, you may not have the chance to be interviewed at all 🙂 Recently, I have discovered a very funny infographic explaining the most common CV mistakes in a hilarious way! The creator of this colorful infographic is careerjourney.co.uk. They highlight very important points that all of us should pay attention as translators/interpreters because CVs are the basic images of you and your work experiences. Here is how we can avoid little mistakes that may affect our future career:

1-      Spelling Mistakes: Everybody is under the risk of making spelling mistakes- even if you use a language well.

2-      Typos: Let’s blame it on the keyboard and double check what we write!

3-      Lack of Specifics: Do not generalize what your job is- go into details as much as possible!

4-      Leaving out Important Information: You should provide every communication channel you have!

5-      Visually Too Cluttered: There are hundreds of good CV examples on internet. Keep it simple and tidy!

6-      Incorrect Contact Information: This may explain why no employers call you back!

7-      Layout, Design and Content Mistake: Getting a job is a serious milestone of your life, so your CV should be more or less formal!

8-      Lies: Do not lie because if you get the job, your employer may be dissappointed with you!

9-      Irrelevant Info: Nobody is interested in your phobias or irrelevant abilities!

10-   Mentioning Why You Have Left Your Current Job: It may create some misunderstandings. Just leave it in the past!

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Brotherhood Quotations for the Brotherhood Week

 

Today is the first day of the brotherhood week in Turkey. I think the term, brotherhood, is something that most of us has already forgot. What about reminding them that “we are all different but we are all same”? I know that this post will reach to very few people; however, I want to believe in the power of social media somehow 🙂 When I check the statistics of this blog, I see that language lovers from more than 20 countries read and enjoy the same post. I guess even this is enough to see that we have no major differences… Here are some quotatations about brotherhood and unity:

You cannot contribute anything to the ideal condition of mind and heart known as Brotherhood, however much you preach, posture, or agree, unless you live it.  ~Faith Baldwin

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent.  ~John Donne

The moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.  ~James Baldwin

In union there is strength.  ~Aesop

Remember upon the conduct of each depends the fate of all.  ~Alexander the Great

So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth.  ~Bahá’u’lláh

I look to a time when brotherhood needs no publicity; to a time when a brotherhood award would be as ridiculous as an award for getting up each morning.  ~Daniel D. Mich

Unity to be real must stand the severest strain without breaking.  ~Mahatma Gandhi

In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.  ~Booker T. Washington

Our design is so flawed, so take everything and fill the gaps with selfless love.

We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.  ~Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength to Love, 1963

Cooperation is the thorough conviction that nobody can get there unless everybody gets there.  ~Virginia Burden, The Process of Intuition

We’re all just walking each other home.  ~Ram Dass

Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable.  ~Kenyan Proverb

I have often noticed that when chickens quit quarreling over their food they often find that there is enough for all of them.  I wonder if it might not be the same with the human race.  ~Don Marquis

 

P.S. The word “brotherhood” may not sound politically correct 🙂 As a female blogger and translator, I wanted to find another term for this but I could not find anything more suitable to the context. Any comment about that is welcomed 🙂

Thanks to quotegarden.com for this compilation.

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Digital Tools ‘to Save Languages’

Until recently, I had been thinking that internet spoils –or even destroys- the minor languages. As a Turkish native speaker, I was furious that every social media tool was in English or in other major languages. Last year, Facebook was translated into Turkish and a couple of months ago, Twitter added Turkish alternative, which were very good news because before all the translations, new phrases emerged in Turkey- half English and half Turkish! Since we have a certain conscious about languages, it is very annoying to see the degeneration of a language. When Facebook was translated into Turkish, it also began to make spell check and to underline the words that you misspelled. This was a huge favor to the new generation because they read everything on internet and some people are not conscious enough protecting and saving languages. They just ignore all the grammar or punctuation rules, they even misspell their own mother tongue! Anyway, I read an article on BBC by Jonathan Amos who proves digital tools are helping to save minor languages. Now let’s see the points that I find most interesting. You can also read the whole article by clicking the link at the bottom:  

– Of the 7,000 or so languages spoken on Earth today, about half are expected to be extinct by the century’s end.

– Globalisation is usually blamed, but some elements of the “modern world”, especially digital technology, are pushing back against the tide.

– North American tribes use social media to re-engage their young, for example.

– Tuvan, an indigenous tongue spoken by nomadic peoples in Siberia and Mongolia, even has an iPhone app to teach the pronunciation of words to new students.

– “Small languages are using social media, YouTube, text messaging and various technologies to expand their voice and expand their presence.”

– “But a positive effect of globalisation is that you can have a language that is spoken by only five or 50 people in one remote location, and now through digital technology that language can achieve a global voice and a global audience.”

– “Digital dictionaries contain more than 32,000 word entries in eight endangered languages. All the audio recordings have been made by native speakers.”

– “What we do with technology is try to connect people,” Prof Noori said. “All of it is to keep the language.”

– “The new digital tools do offer a way back from the brink for a lot of languages that seemed doomed just a few years ago.”

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Digital Dialects

There are times you have to sit in front of the computer-waiting for something like an e-mail- but you cannot find anything useful to do and you just kill your time on Facebook or Twitter, looking at 500 photos of one of your friends 🙂 It happens to me a lot, that’s why I bookmark the useful websites and blogs that I come across on internet. You wouldn’t believe when you hear how many websites there are that can teach you any language at the basic level. I discovered one and I immediately bookmarked it 🙂 I also recommend you to do so. There are some language exercises with audio feature as well, such as Turkish 🙂 You can also test yourself with plays after learning 15-20 new words. I hope you enjoy this website.

Click here to go to website.

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Do You Want to Rearrange Your Words?

Until recently, I hadn’t know what anagram is. I stumbled upon a website which rearranges the letters of any word that you write. This is amazing because this website shows more options than one can think just looking at the letters. I like it a lot and I want to share it with you. Maybe you also enjoy seeing how many options one may have!

What is an Anagram?

noun: A word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of another word or phrase.

verb: To rearrange letters in such a way. To anagrammatize.

How does it work?

You just type the word you want:

Then you click on “Get anagrams” to see how many words you can have by rearranging the positions of the letters:

The only thing I do not like is that you can sometimes have words without any meaning (at least in English). I guess the computer gives all the possible rearrangements regardless of their meanings.

Anyway, it is a good and an interesting service especially for us, the language lovers. You can give it a try- after all it is free 🙂

Click here to try.

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Color Idioms and Phrases in English

 

Thanks to Stumbleupon, I discovered another great website which includes all the idioms and phrases related to different colors. This piece of information is created by Alan S. Kennedy and he listed all the idioms and phrases, language by language and color by color. You can find tens of languages on the web site but I paste here only the English ones because it is our common point. Since it is a project, I kind of tend to trust it more compared to bilingual online dictionaries 🙂 Maybe I am wrong, I do not know. You can also consult this website when you have a doubt while translating a phrase including colors. I am sure, you will find many idioms/phrases that surprise you. I learned many interesting stuff from this website. I hope you also like it and contribute with your comments. 

white noise	static noise
white as a sheet	scared, sick, surprised
white as a ghost	scared
white-collar	related to “desk jobs”
a white flag	surrender
to whitewash something	to mask the negative parts
white wine	wine from green or yellow grapes
a white Christmas	snow on Christmas day
a white wedding	a traditional western-style wedding where the bride wears a white gown
a white person	a person of Caucasian race
white-hot	extremely hot OR popular
a white paper	an authoritative report on a issue
a white elephant	a useless knick-knack OR an expensive, useless thing
white as the driven snow	innocent (often used sarcastically about corruption)
white with rage	extremely enraged
to bleed someone white	to take everything someone has, esp. money
showing the white feather	acting cowardly
a white-knuckle ride	a dangerous, nerve-wracking, scary ride
that’s mighty white of you (old-fashioned)	that’s good of you
lily-white	unmistakably Caucasian OR blameless, goodly
white horses (surfing)	patches of white foam made by breaking waves
white trash (American)	(offensive) uneducated, socio-economically disadvantaged Caucasian people
whiter than white (British)	righteous, innocent
a white pointer (Australian)	a topless female sunbather
to blackmail someone	to threaten to reveal secrets unless payment is made
black magic / the black arts	magic used for malevolent purposes
the pot calling the kettle black	someone criticizing someone else for a quality they themselves possess
the black market	illegal/underground sales and purchases
little black book	book of contacts, esp. past or potential dates
a black sheep	the outcast or disgrace in a group
black tie	formal clothing e.g. a tuxedo
black humor	jokes about death or illness
a black day	a day when something bad happens
to be in black and white	to be written down officially
to be black and white (a situation)	to be clear
in the black	profitable
a black mood	a bad, grumpy mood
a black eye	a bruised eye
to blacklist someone	to prevent someone from being hired
to blackball someone	to shut someone out from group participation
black and blue	bruised
a black look	an angry/disapproving facial expression
as black as night	very dark black
pitch black	very dark black
a black person	a person of African heritage
black ops	extralegal covert activity, done in the dark (military/politics)
black-hearted	cruel, evil, mean
a black mark	an indication of wrongdoing
to blacken someon’es name	to suggest/indicate a person’s wrongdoing
the Black Death	The Bubonic Plague
Black Friday (U.S.)	The day after American Thanksgiving when many stores have sales
the black dog (Irish)	a bad mood
beyond the black stump (Australian)	the back of nowhere, far from anything
in the red	unproftable OR negative financial balance, owing money
a redhead	a person with orange-colored hair
red light district	area with prostitutes
to see red	to be furious
red with rage	furious
to turn/go red	become embarassed
a red herring	a false clue
to paint the town red	to dine, dance, experience fun in a town or city
a red flag	a signal that something is wrong
roll out the red carpet	give a big welcome
red tape	unnecessary/excessive bureaucracy
not one red cent	no money at all
a red letter day	a special day
a scarlet woman	a sinful woman
scarlet fever	an infection with group A streptococcus bacteria.
red-hot	very hot OR very popular
red card	(soccer) to give someone their final warning
red alert	a serious warning of danger
a red-blooded male	a virile, manly male person
like a red rag/flag to a bull	provoking/aggravating anger
red (adjective)	communist
bleed red ink (British)	debt
red in tooth and claw (British)	the wild, violent aspect of the natural world
redshirting (U.S.)	delaying an athlete’s participation in sports order to lengthen his/her period of eligibility
a red state (U.S.)	a state whose residents are politically more Republican
a redneck (U.S.)	an uneducated, rural white American
a red-bone (U.S.)	a light-skinned black woman
the red eye (U.S.)	the overnight flight between west and east coast
green with envy	very envious
the green-eyed monster	jealousy
to give the green light	to give approval to proceed
to be green (in a position)	to be inexperienced, a rookie
to be green (policy)	to be environmentally aware
the green room	room in a theater or studio where guests/performers wait to go on
to turn green	to be naseous
green around the gills	sick-looking
a greenbelt	an area of nature around a city
greens	vegetables
a green	a golf course
a greengrocer	a person/store that sells vegetables & fruit
the grass is always greener on the other side	other people’s possessions/situations always seem better than your own
to greenwash something	to deceptively make practices/policies seem more environmentally friendly
little green men	stereotypical/humorous description of space aliens
as sure as God made little green apples	very certain
colorless green ideas sleep furiously	(Linguistics) Noam Chomsky’s oft-quoted example of a sentence with good grammar but no meaning
to have green fingers (British)	to be good with plants/gardens
to have a green thumb (U.S.)	to be good with plants/gardens
a greenie (Australian)	an environmentally aware person
a green card (U.S.)	legal residency staus
a greenhorn (U.S.)	an inexperienced or young person
greenbacks (U.S.)	dollars
yellow	cowardly
a yellow streak	cowardice
yellow-bellied	cowardly
yellow journalism	disreputable, sensationalistic journalism
a yellow card	(soccer) to give someone a first warning
the yellow peril	(offensive, archaic) the fear that Asian people will outnumber/displace Caucasian people
a yellow dog Democrat (U.S.)	a voter who always votes Democrat in every election
out of the blue	suddenly, unexpectedly
a bolt from the blue	a sudden/unexpected thing
to be blue	to be sad
a blue funk	a feeling of melancholy
the blues	sadness OR a 3 chord style of music
once in a blue moon	infrequently
blue-collar	related to manual labor or the working class
a blue blood	an aristocratic person
to talk a blue streak	to talk a lot
to turn blue	to have difficulty breathing
blue with cold	feeling very cold
until you’re blue in the face	having lost your patience
blue chip stock	stock of an established/finanically sound company
working blue	performing using foul language
a blue movie	a pornographic film
a blueprint (for something)	a design, a guide
true blue	faithful
blue on blue	in military: friendly fire
into the wide/wild blue yonder	to an unknown/faraway place
blue balls (lewd)	male sexual frustration due to unfulfilled sexual urges
to turn the air blue	to swear a lot
between the devil and the deep blue sea	a dilemma
the boys in blue	the police
the thin blue line	the police
a blue state (U.S.)	a state whose residents are politically more Democrat
a blue (British)	a Tory
to scream blue muder (British)	to express yourself angrily
a blue-eyed boy (British)	a male who can do no wrong, who is favored by authority
having a blue (Australian)	having a fight
make a blue (Australian)	make a mistake
a brown-noser	a sycophant
in a brown study	being contemplative; daydreaming
browned off (British)	annoyed
purple prose	flowery, romantic writing
born in the purple	born into a high ranking/aristocratic family
the Purple Heart (U.S.)	a U.S. military honor badge
a purple patch (British)	a period of exceptionally high achievement
agent orange	a defoliant used in herbicidal warfare
Orangemen (Irish)	Protestant fraternal organization
in the pink of health	very healthy
tickled pink	very pleased
a pinko	a communist
to see the world through rose-colored glasses	to see the world through an optimistic filter
rosy	positive, optimistic,
to get a pink slip	to be fired
the pink pound (British)	consumer spending by gay people
grey area	unclear
grey matter	the brain
to give someone grey hairs	to try someone’s patience
gray market	sale of products via nonstandard distribution channels or at an unofficial price
grey nomads (Australian)	retirees who travel around the country
the silver screen	the movies
a golden boy	a well-regarded, successful man
a golden handshake	monetary incentive to join a company
a golden parachute	money given to an executive leaving a company
golden ears	great listening ability to discern quality or commerciality
a golden shower (lewd)	urinating on a sexual partner
a golden mean	the desirable middle (between extremes of excess and deficiency)
off-color	inappropriate, crude
to show your true colors	to reveal your true self or feelings
a colorless person	a boring person
colorful (e.g. tale, history, life)	event-filled and interesting
colorful language	vivid or expletive-filled language
to pass with flying colors	to do very well
local color	having typical characteristics of the local area
color commentary	facts & comments about athletes during a broadcast
a horse of a different color	a completely different thing/idea
a country’s colors	the colors of a national flag

For other languages and for the rest of the list, click here.

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white noise	static noise
white as a sheet	scared, sick, surprised
white as a ghost	scared
white-collar	related to “desk jobs”
a white flag	surrender
to whitewash something	to mask the negative parts
white wine	wine from green or yellow grapes
a white Christmas	snow on Christmas day
a white wedding	a traditional western-style wedding where the bride wears a white gown
a white person	a person of Caucasian race
white-hot	extremely hot OR popular
a white paper	an authoritative report on a issue
a white elephant	a useless knick-knack OR an expensive, useless thing
white as the driven snow	innocent (often used sarcastically about corruption)
white with rage	extremely enraged
to bleed someone white	to take everything someone has, esp. money
showing the white feather	acting cowardly
a white-knuckle ride	a dangerous, nerve-wracking, scary ride
that’s mighty white of you (old-fashioned)	that’s good of you
lily-white	unmistakably Caucasian OR blameless, goodly
white horses (surfing)	patches of white foam made by breaking waves
white trash (American)	(offensive) uneducated, socio-economically disadvantaged Caucasian people
whiter than white (British)	righteous, innocent
a white pointer (Australian)	a topless female sunbather
to blackmail someone	to threaten to reveal secrets unless payment is made
black magic / the black arts	magic used for malevolent purposes
the pot calling the kettle black	someone criticizing someone else for a quality they themselves possess
the black market	illegal/underground sales and purchases
little black book	book of contacts, esp. past or potential dates
a black sheep	the outcast or disgrace in a group
black tie	formal clothing e.g. a tuxedo
black humor	jokes about death or illness
a black day	a day when something bad happens
to be in black and white	to be written down officially
to be black and white (a situation)	to be clear
in the black	profitable
a black mood	a bad, grumpy mood
a black eye	a bruised eye
to blacklist someone	to prevent someone from being hired
to blackball someone	to shut someone out from group participation
black and blue	bruised
a black look	an angry/disapproving facial expression
as black as night	very dark black
pitch black	very dark black
a black person	a person of African heritage
black ops	extralegal covert activity, done in the dark (military/politics)
black-hearted	cruel, evil, mean
a black mark	an indication of wrongdoing
to blacken someon’es name	to suggest/indicate a person’s wrongdoing
the Black Death	The Bubonic Plague
Black Friday (U.S.)	The day after American Thanksgiving when many stores have sales
the black dog (Irish)	a bad mood
beyond the black stump (Australian)	the back of nowhere, far from anything
in the red	unproftable OR negative financial balance, owing money
a redhead	a person with orange-colored hair
red light district	area with prostitutes
to see red	to be furious
red with rage	furious
to turn/go red	become embarassed
a red herring	a false clue
to paint the town red	to dine, dance, experience fun in a town or city
a red flag	a signal that something is wrong
roll out the red carpet	give a big welcome
red tape	unnecessary/excessive bureaucracy
not one red cent	no money at all
a red letter day	a special day
a scarlet woman	a sinful woman
scarlet fever	an infection with group A streptococcus bacteria.
red-hot	very hot OR very popular
red card	(soccer) to give someone their final warning
red alert	a serious warning of danger
a red-blooded male	a virile, manly male person
like a red rag/flag to a bull	provoking/aggravating anger
red (adjective)	communist
bleed red ink (British)	debt
red in tooth and claw (British)	the wild, violent aspect of the natural world
redshirting (U.S.)	delaying an athlete’s participation in sports order to lengthen his/her period of eligibility
a red state (U.S.)	a state whose residents are politically more Republican
a redneck (U.S.)	an uneducated, rural white American
a red-bone (U.S.)	a light-skinned black woman
the red eye (U.S.)	the overnight flight between west and east coast
green with envy	very envious
the green-eyed monster	jealousy
to give the green light	to give approval to proceed
to be green (in a position)	to be inexperienced, a rookie
to be green (policy)	to be environmentally aware
the green room	room in a theater or studio where guests/performers wait to go on
to turn green	to be naseous
green around the gills	sick-looking
a greenbelt	an area of nature around a city
greens	vegetables
a green	a golf course
a greengrocer	a person/store that sells vegetables & fruit
the grass is always greener on the other side	other people’s possessions/situations always seem better than your own
to greenwash something	to deceptively make practices/policies seem more environmentally friendly
little green men	stereotypical/humorous description of space aliens
as sure as God made little green apples	very certain
colorless green ideas sleep furiously	(Linguistics) Noam Chomsky’s oft-quoted example of a sentence with good grammar but no meaning
to have green fingers (British)	to be good with plants/gardens
to have a green thumb (U.S.)	to be good with plants/gardens
a greenie (Australian)	an environmentally aware person
a green card (U.S.)	legal residency staus
a greenhorn (U.S.)	an inexperienced or young person
greenbacks (U.S.)	dollars
yellow	cowardly
a yellow streak	cowardice
yellow-bellied	cowardly
yellow journalism	disreputable, sensationalistic journalism
a yellow card	(soccer) to give someone a first warning
the yellow peril	(offensive, archaic) the fear that Asian people will outnumber/displace Caucasian people
a yellow dog Democrat (U.S.)	a voter who always votes Democrat in every election
out of the blue	suddenly, unexpectedly
a bolt from the blue	a sudden/unexpected thing
to be blue	to be sad
a blue funk	a feeling of melancholy
the blues	sadness OR a 3 chord style of music
once in a blue moon	infrequently
blue-collar	related to manual labor or the working class
a blue blood	an aristocratic person
to talk a blue streak	to talk a lot
to turn blue	to have difficulty breathing
blue with cold	feeling very cold
until you’re blue in the face	having lost your patience
blue chip stock	stock of an established/finanically sound company
working blue	performing using foul language
a blue movie	a pornographic film
a blueprint (for something)	a design, a guide
true blue	faithful
blue on blue	in military: friendly fire
into the wide/wild blue yonder	to an unknown/faraway place
blue balls (lewd)	male sexual frustration due to unfulfilled sexual urges
to turn the air blue	to swear a lot
between the devil and the deep blue sea	a dilemma
the boys in blue	the police
the thin blue line	the police
a blue state (U.S.)	a state whose residents are politically more Democrat
a blue (British)	a Tory
to scream blue muder (British)	to express yourself angrily
a blue-eyed boy (British)	a male who can do no wrong, who is favored by authority
having a blue (Australian)	having a fight
make a blue (Australian)	make a mistake
a brown-noser	a sycophant
in a brown study	being contemplative; daydreaming
browned off (British)	annoyed
purple prose	flowery, romantic writing
born in the purple	born into a high ranking/aristocratic family
the Purple Heart (U.S.)	a U.S. military honor badge
a purple patch (British)	a period of exceptionally high achievement
agent orange	a defoliant used in herbicidal warfare
Orangemen (Irish)	Protestant fraternal organization
in the pink of health	very healthy
tickled pink	very pleased
a pinko	a communist
to see the world through rose-colored glasses	to see the world through an optimistic filter
rosy	positive, optimistic,
to get a pink slip	to be fired
the pink pound (British)	consumer spending by gay people
grey area	unclear
grey matter	the brain
to give someone grey hairs	to try someone’s patience
gray market	sale of products via nonstandard distribution channels or at an unofficial price
grey nomads (Australian)	retirees who travel around the country
the silver screen	the movies
a golden boy	a well-regarded, successful man
a golden handshake	monetary incentive to join a company
a golden parachute	money given to an executive leaving a company
golden ears	great listening ability to discern quality or commerciality
a golden shower (lewd)	urinating on a sexual partner
a golden mean	the desirable middle (between extremes of excess and deficiency)
off-color	inappropriate, crude
to show your true colors	to reveal your true self or feelings
a colorless person	a boring person
colorful (e.g. tale, history, life)	event-filled and interesting
colorful language	vivid or expletive-filled language
to pass with flying colors	to do very well
local color	having typical characteristics of the local area
color commentary	facts & comments about athletes during a broadcast
a horse of a different color	a completely different thing/idea
a country’s colors	the colors of a national flag

For the Words That are on the Tip of Your Tongue!

Sometimes you know the concept of a word but you just cannot find the exact word. You know how a word starts and ends but you just cannot utter it. You know the word/phrase contains, let’s say, “free” but it just does not come to your mind… These all happen to me a lot… No more! I have just discovered this wonderful website: onelook.com!

Traditional dictionaries do not find all the words that are related to a certain concept but onelook does. It has too many options that I cannot explain them all here. The only thing I can say it will enrich my translations and it will help me tremendously while playing Scrabble because you can write like: “A word begins with “th” and ends with “ing”. There are four missing letters and you just type “????” instead of them:

Or if you want to find related words with “guitar”. All you need to do is writing “*:guitar” in the search box. You can also click on the search results to see the meaning:

You can do many more actions than these two:

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New Discovery For Language Lovers: Pronunciator!

Learning a language requires many things. After grasping the basic grammer, you have to learn many new words. Without the knowledge of a proper vocabulary, you are doomed to use dictionaries all the time, which makes it almost impossible to talk with a native speaker or to read a newspaper/book in the target language. The more words you know, the faster you talk or read. However, grammer and vocabulary together are not enough. You also need to listen and hear the exact pronunciaions.

Today, I was translating a text about Japanese poetry and I had to explain many Japanese terms in Turkish (the source text was English). In the source text, there was some Japanese text written in Latin alphabet. I wondered about their pronunciations and so I discovered this website. It is not that comprehensive, but it is quite satisfying for beginners. The url is: http://www.pronunciator.com!

There are 30 million lessons in 60 different languages on this website. It shows the image of the word and you also hear the exact pronunciation.

This website can relax you in your leisure time. Moreover, it may also satisfy your language curiosity to a certain extent.

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Animal Sounds in Different Languages

2 years ago, I went to Romania for an EU project. We were waiting for the shuttle outside the hostel and there was a stray dog that was watching us from a distance. One of my Romanian friends said something like “ham ham”, I am not sure now. It was a very interesting experience for me because since then I used to think that we all hear more or less the similar sounds when a dog barks. However, I searched this on the internet and I came up with very different and interesting results. For example in Korean, a dog’s bark sounds like “meong meong”. It sounds like a cat to me (as a Turkish native). You can find pages of animal sounds on the internet but I have found a very practical list on www.laits.utexas.edu and I’m pasting it here. I hope you enjoy my post. I think this piece of information can raise awareness and can be useful in our translations. Since this list does not include all the languages, if you think you have a different sound for any animal in your native language, feel free to share it here or on our Facebook page!

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