Hello and welcome to this podcast brought to you by That's English!, the Spanish Ministry of Education's official distance learning English course. To find out more about That's English! go to www.thatsenglish.com or contact your local Official School of Languages. In today's podcast we are going to talk about colour idioms. In English, colours are frequently used in idiomatic expressions, so today we are going to have a look at a few of them. Following the colours of the rainbow, let's start with red. If somebody is caught red-handed, this means that they are caught when they are in the middle of doing something they shouldn't be doing, or even committing a crime. For example: The police caught the thieves red-handed as they were taking the money from the safe. Red is often associated with anger, so when we say to see red, this means to get very angry. For example: My dad saw red when he saw how badly I had scratched his new car. Likewise, when someone is furious, they often go red with rage. On the other hand, if you have a red-letter day, this refers to a day that is special because of an important or memorable event. For example: The day my mum finally passed her driving test was a red-letter day for her as she had already failed it five times before. After which she probably felt like painting the town red, in other words, going out and having a really good time. The expression red tape is used when we refer to an excess of bureaucracy or administrative paperwork. For example: The amount of red tape which you have to do to get a tourist visa puts a lot of people off visiting certain countries. And a curious expression that we use is a red herring, which refers to an unimportant and unrelated topic brought into a conversation, usually as a distracting mechanism or to waste time. For example: John irritated his teacher as he was always bringing up red herrings in class. There aren't many idioms with yellow and, the ones there are, are often related to being a coward. Therefore, to have a yellow belly or a yellow streak means just that - not to be very brave. We also use yellow when we talk about sensational journalism. The Sun newspaper is one of the best examples of yellow press in the UK. There are many more idioms with green. If you have green fingers, this means that you are good at growing and caring for plants. If a person is green, this means that they are immature and inexperienced. In a business environment, we often talk about being given the green light to do something, which means that you are given permission to go ahead. For example: The boss has given the IT department the green light to develop the new computer programme. Green is also associated with envy. For example, we could say: The Smiths were green with envy when they found out that their neighbours had won the lottery. However, there are many more idioms associated with the colour blue. Blue is often associated with sadness. For example, if you feel blue, it means you feel depressed. But other blue idioms have completely different meanings. For example, out of the blue, means unexpectedly. We could say: My uncle visited us yesterday out of the blue. We hadn't been in touch for over two years! A bolt from the blue has a similar meaning, although it often refers to unexpected bad news. For example: The news that the factory was going to close came like a bolt from the blue for the employees. In the business world we also use the term blue-collar to refer to manual workers as opposed to white-collar, which refers to office workers. So we could say: The trade unions have more members that are blue-collar workers than white-collar workers. Another expression is once in a blue moon which means very rarely. For example we could say: When Sarah was given the research post at Oxford University, she knew that it was the sort of opportunity that presents itself once in a blue moon. Blue in the face is another idiom which is used quite a lot and means to say or shout until you are blue in the face to try to convince somebody to do something, usually with little success. For example: John's mother had told him until she was blue in the face to tidy his room but he took no notice of her. Let's now turn to black and white. If, for example, you are in somebody's black books, it means that you have done something to upset or irritate them. So we could say: Billy was really in his wife's black books after he forgot to buy her a present for her birthday. Another amusing expression is: The frying pan (or the pot) calling the kettle black, which we use when somebody is critical of another person's behaviour when they behave in the same way. For example: She kept telling him to give up smoking when she smoked herself, so it was really a case of the frying pan calling the kettle black. With white, we have already seen white-collar to refer to office workers, but another expression that is used quite a lot is to tell a white lie, which means to tell a lie that is harmless and is often used so as to not hurt another person's feelings. For example: She was so pleased with her new shoes that I told her a white lie and said they looked lovely, although I didn't really like them. Another interesting idiom is a white elephant, which refers to a possession that is useless or very difficult or expensive to maintain. We could say: At first, Mary was delighted to have inherited her aunt's country house until she realised that it was really a white elephant as it was far too expensive for her to maintain. Well, we hope you have enjoyed the selection we have made of these colour idioms and that you will now be able to recognise and use a few more yourself. If you have found this podcast interesting and helpful, please recommend this app to other people who are learning English. We hope you have enjoyed this podcast, brought to you by That's English! Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter. We look forward to hearing from you. Bye for now!