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LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Ten colourful Italian idioms and the strange meanings behind them

Idioms - those little stock expressions whose meanings aren't what they first seem - are often the hardest part of learning a new language.

Published: 12 June 2017 08:35 CEST
Updated: 5 June 2019 07:39 CEST
Ten colourful Italian idioms and the strange meanings behind them
The colourful island of Burano, Venice. Photo: aluha123/Depositphotos

And Italian has an abundance of the confusing sayings. This means that you can understand every word that someone is saying to you, and yet still not have a clue what they're talking about.

In particular, the way different languages depict colour is a topic that has interested not just linguists, but natural historians over the years.

Some languages use different words to distinguish between distinct shades of blue, for example, while others have a single term for the colours English-speakers would categorize as blue and green. Researchers have debated whether this is because of a different perception of the colour spectrum, or if it's language which influences people's experience of the world.

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Italian is generally considered a vivid and emotional language, with the hand gestures to match – and it's also very colourful. Some of the colour-based phrases are similar to English idioms: 'vedere tutto rosa' or 'to see everything in pink' means the same thing as 'to have rose-tinted glasses', while 'vedere rosso' can be translated literally as 'to see red' and 'la pecora nera' (black sheep) has the same meaning as in English.

Others are easy to guess, because they rely on the same associations with colours which many cultures share. So having 'una giornata nera' (a black day) means to have a bad day, and 'vedere tutto nero' (to see everything in black) is to be pessimistic, 

Andare in bianco | To go white

This is a false friend, since in English someone who 'goes white' looks scared of something. In Italian however, it means to fail at something – usually a romantic endeavour. Similarly, the phrase 'un matrimonio bianco' should not be confused with the English phrase 'a white wedding', which refers mainly to the colour of the bride's dress. In Italian, a 'white marriage' means an unconsumated or sexless one, with the colour white acting as a symbol of virginity.

Mangiare in bianco | To eat in white

If you find yourself feeling under the weather in Italy, the chances are your Italian friends will urge you to 'eat in white', which means tucking into starchy foods such as pasta, bread and rice – but no sauces, herbs or colourful additions allowed. The idea is that such plain foods are easiest for the body to digest, meaning no aggravation to an upset stomach.

Photo: oocoskun/Depositphotos

Notte in bianco | A sleepless night

This expression is used to refer to a sleepless night, so you might think that 'bianco' is used as an opposite to 'nero' (black), meaning that the speaker didn't close their eyes. Actually, the expression derives from a medieval ceremony, when prospective knights had to undertake a solemn swearing-in.

Before the ceremony in which they were given their weapons, they were expected to spend an entire night fasting and praying in a chapel, in order to reflect on their new responsibilities. The knights wore white as a symbol of purity before taking on the new way of life. The term 'a white night' was first used to refer to a night without sleep by writer Italo Calvino in the 1950's.

Una mosca bianca | A white fly

A 'white fly' is a metaphor meaning that something is rare or unusual. It can be used in either a positive or negative sense – a misfit, or something that stands out.

Una settimana bianca | A white week

While most phrases using 'bianco' seem to have a slight negative connotation, a 'settimana bianca' is far from dull. It's the usual Italian way of referring to a skiing or snowsports holiday, usually taken in the first few months of the year. Not to be confused with a Swedish expression sharing the same literal translation, 'en vit vecka', which means a week without any alcohol.


Photo: kor/Depositphotos

Essere al verde | To be at the green

If someone says they're 'at the green', in Italian that means they're broke or out of money. This might be confusing, because like in English, Italians also say 'in rosso' (in the red) to refer to a negative bank balance. So why the difference? 

'In rosso' is easily explained, because bank statements used to show negative numbers and outgoings in red, but there are several possible explanations for where 'essere al verde' comes from. It could be a reference to a medieval custom of making bankrupt people wear green caps as a sign of ridicule, or a nod to unlucky casino players who lost all their chips, leaving them only with the plain green table. Another theory goes that in Renaissance-era Florence, candles with a green bottom were used to time public auctions, so that when the time was up and all the money spent, you would be 'at the green'.

La verde età | The green age

'Green' has connotations of freshness, so the 'green age' generally refers to youth. But be aware that it's sometimes used in an ironic or jokey way, so it's possible to say 'alla verde età di 90' for example, meaning 'at the ripe old age of 90'. 

Photo: diego_cervo/Depositphotos

Far vedere i sorci verdi | To make someone see green rats

This idiom has an interesting background. In 1936, a Royal Air Force squadron adopted three green rats as its emblem. Dictator Benito Mussolini bragged of the ability of Italian pilots, and the squadron took part in numerous bombing raids throughout the Second World War.

After that, ‘I'll make you see green rats' became a way to warn someone you were about to crush them with a humiliating defeat.

Principe azzurro | Blue prince

Children across Italy grow up hearing fairy tales of brave princesses and their 'principe azzurro' – Prince Charming, as they would be known in the Anglophone world. It's used to indicate a perfect man: good-looking, kind, and charming.

Blue eyes are relatively rare in Italy so may be seen as attractive, but that's not where the term comes from. According to Italy's language experts at the Accademia della Crusca, it could be because blue was traditionally the colour of the noble House of Savoy.

Photo: luisrsphoto/Depositphotos

Cronaca rosa | Pink column

'Rosa' (pink) has connotations of positivity in Italian, but also of femininity or, sometimes, links to the LGBT community. A 'pink column' in a newspaper is a gossip column, reporting celebrity news seen as appealing to women in particular, while a 'romanzo rosa' (pink novel) is an Italian term for 'chick lit' or fiction aimed at women, usually with a romantic plot. On the other end of the colour spectrum, the 'cronaca nera' (black column) in the newspaper is where you'll find the latest crime news.

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LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Le Havre rules: How to talk about French towns beginning with Le, La or Les

If you're into car racing, French politics or visits to seaside resorts you are likely at some point to need to talk about French towns with a 'Le' in the title. But how you talk about these places involves a slightly unexpected French grammar rule. Here's how it works.

Published: 30 November 2021 13:04 CET
Updated: 4 December 2021 17:47 CET
An old WW2 photo taken in the French port town of Le Havre.
An old WW2 photo taken in the French port town of Le Havre. It can be difficult to know what prepositions to use for places like this - so we have explained it for you. (Photo by AFP)

If you’re listening to French chat about any of those topics, at some point you’re likely to hear the names of Mans, Havre and Touquet bandied about.

And this is because French towns that have a ‘Le’ ‘La’ or ‘Les’ in the title lose them when you begin constructing sentences. 

As a general rule, French town, commune and city names do not carry a gender. 

So if you wanted to describe Paris as beautiful, you could write: Paris est belle or Paris est beau. It doesn’t matter what adjectival agreement you use. 

For most towns and cities, you would use à to evoke movement to the place or explain that you are already there, and de to explain that you come from/are coming from that location:

Je vais à Marseille – I am going to Marseille

Je suis à Marseille – I am in Marseille 

Je viens de Marseille – I come from Marseille 

But a select few settlements in France do carry a ‘Le’, a ‘La’ or a ‘Les’ as part of their name. 

In this case the preposition disappears when you begin formulating most sentences, and you structure the sentence as you would any other phrase with a ‘le’, ‘la’ or ‘les’ in it.

Masculine

Le is the most common preposition for two names (probably something to do with the patriarchy) with Le Havre, La Mans, Le Touquet and the town of Le Tampon on the French overseas territory of La Réunion (more on that later)

A good example of this is Le Havre, a city in northern France where former Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe, who is tipped to one day run for the French presidency, serves as mayor. 

Edouard Philippe’s twitter profile describes him as the ‘Maire du Havre’, using a masculine preposition

Here we can see that his location is Le Havre, and his Twitter handle is Philippe_LH (for Le Havre) but when he comes to describe his job the Le disappears.

Because Le Havre is masculine, he describes himself as the Maire du Havre rather than the Maire de Havre (Anne Hidalgo, for example would describe herself as the Maire de Paris). 

For place names with ‘Le’ in front of them, you should use prepositions like this:

Ja vais au Touquet – I am going to Le Touquet

Je suis au Touquet – I am in Le Touquet 

Je viens du Touquet – I am from Le Touquet 

Je parle du Touquet – I am talking about Le Touquet

Le Traité du Touquet – the Le Touquet Treaty

Feminine

Some towns carry ‘La’ as part of their name. La Rochelle, the scenic town on the west coast of France known for its great seafood and rugby team, is one such example.

In French ‘à la‘ or ‘de la‘ is allowed, while ‘à le‘ becomes au and ‘de le’ becomes du. So for ‘feminine’ towns such as this, you should use the following prepositions:

Je vais à La Rochelle – I am going to La Rochelle

Je viens de La Rochelle – I am coming from La Rochelle 

Plural

And some places have ‘Les’ in front of their name, like Les Lilas, a commune in the suburbs of Paris. The name of this commune literally translates as ‘The Lilacs’ and was made famous by Serge Gainsbourg’s song Le Poinçonneur des Lilas, about a ticket puncher at the Metro station there. 

When talking about a place with ‘Les’ as part of the name, you must use a plural preposition like so:

Je suis le poinçonneur des Lilas – I am the ticket puncher of Lilas 

Je vais aux Lilas – I am going to Les Lilas

Il est né aux Lilas – He was born in Les Lilas  

Islands 

Islands follow more complicated rules. 

If you are talking about going to one island in particular, you would use à or en. This has nothing to do with gender and is entirely randomised. For example:

Je vais à La Réunion – I am going to La Réunion 

Je vais en Corse – I am going to Corsica 

Generally speaking, when talking about one of the en islands, you would use the following structure to suggest movement from the place: 

Je viens de Corse – I am coming from Corsica 

For the à Islands, you would say:

Je viens de La Réunion – I am coming from La Réunion 

When talking about territories composed of multiple islands, you should use aux.

Je vais aux Maldives – I am going to the Maldives. 

No preposition needed 

There are some phrases in French which don’t require any a preposition at all. This doesn’t change when dealing with ‘Le’ places, such as Le Mans – which is famous for its car-racing track and Motorcycle Grand Prix. Phrases that don’t need a preposition include: 

Je visite Le Mans – I am visiting Le Mans

J’aime Le Mans – I like Le Mans

But for a preposition phrase, the town becomes simply Mans, as in Je vais au Mans.

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