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10 Colourful Idioms!

I’m sure you’ve come across expressions like “as white as a ghost” or “my cheeks flushed red” when you read narratives. Such expressions are useful to help the reader imagine how the character looks or feels. For instance, when you describe someone to be “as white as a ghost”, you can easily imagine how he is so terrified that all colour drained from his face and he turns “as white as a ghost”. When someone is feeling embarrassed, his cheeks will flush red due to increased blood flow.

Apart from these commonly used expressions in descriptive writing, did you know that the English language contains a variety of idiomatic expressions using colours that can help us describe a character or his feelings?

In this video, let’s take a look at 10 such expressions to see how we can use them effectively in our writing!


1. To see Red
Meaning: To become very angry suddenly
Sentence: When Mother discovered that her favourite vase had shattered onto the floor in smithereens, she saw red and gave us a severe tongue-lashing.

2. Until you are Blue in the face
Meaning: to argue for a long time, usually with no solution
Sentence: The couple argued endlessly until they were both blue in their faces.

3. Green-eyed monster/to be green with envy
Meaning: to be extremely jealous or envious of someone
Sentence: When Sarah saw her arch-rival raising the golden trophy victoriously in the air, she morphed into a green-eyed monster. OR
Sentence: When Sarah saw her arch-rival raising the golden trophy victoriously in the air, she was green with envy.

4. To be tickled pink
Meaning: to be very happy or amused about something
Sentence: William was tickled pink while watching his pet puppy chasing its own tail.

5. Yellow-bellied
Meaning: to describe someone who is a coward
Sentence: The moment the class bully Ralph entered the classroom, all of us turned yellow-bellied and veered out of his way.

6. Beet red
Meaning: (to describe) one’s face turning dark red
Sentence: My shy sister’s face turned beet red when I caught her singing in front of the mirror.

7. To have/with a heart of gold
Meaning: to be very kind and generous
Sentence: Grandfather, who often donates to multiple charities, is someone who has a heart of gold/ with a heart of gold.

8. Feeling blue
Meaning: to feel a little depressed or sad
Sentence: Ever since she received her dismal results from the last examination, Mei Mei has been feeling blue.

9. Black Sheep
Meaning: (used to describe) a person who is a disgrace to a family or group
Sentence: Notorious for his lies, George was the black sheep of the company whom everyone stayed away from.

10. Rose-coloured/tinted glasses
Meaning: having an unrealistic or overly optimistic view
Sentence: Having been protected from the harsh realties of the world, Amy has always looked at life through her rose-tinted glasses.


Now that you know how these idioms can be used, try this short exercise below. I am going to show you 6 questions at a time followed by their answers before showing you the next set of 5 questions and their answers!

You can pause the video to finish the questions before checking!

  1. Paul turned ________________ when he realised his singing was broadcast over the school public announcement system unexpectedly.
  2. “Don’t be such a ________________! Your brother has worked hard to deserve this gold medal,” Mother chided after I sulked and threw a tantrum.
  3. The moment the giant’s voice boomed across the skies, the townsfolk turned ________________ and ran for their lives.
  4. After the beach picnic was cancelled due to the heavy downpour, Caleb could not stop ________________.
  5. “How dare you damage the school property?” Mr Ng, our discipline master ________________ when he caught some boys vandalising the school gate.
  6. Everyone avoids Uncle Roger, the ________________ of the family, who was always borrowing money and never returning them.
  7. “If you always look at things through your ________________, you’d be sorely disappointed and disillusioned with life one day,” Grandfather cautioned me when I first graduated from college.
  8. Janet is always willing to help others; she certainly has a ________________.
  9. The stand-up comedian had everyone in his audience ________________ with his puny jokes and witty sarcasm.
  10. The two siblings fought with each other over the iPad for almost an hour until they were both ________________.

Answers

  1. Paul turned ________________ when he realised his singing was broadcast over the school public announcement system unexpectedly.
  2. “Don’t be such a ________________! Your brother has worked hard to deserve this gold medal,” Mother chided after I sulked and threw a tantrum.
  3. The moment the giant’s voice boomed across the skies, the townsfolk turned ________________ and ran for their lives.
  4. After the beach picnic was cancelled due to the heavy downpour, Caleb could not stop ________________.
  5. “How dare you damage the school property?” Mr Ng, our discipline master ________________ when he caught some boys vandalising the school gate.
  6. Everyone avoids Uncle Roger, the ________________ of the family, who was always borrowing money and never returning them.
  7. “If you always look at things through your ________________, you’d be sorely disappointed and disillusioned with life one day,” Grandfather cautioned me when I first graduated from college.
  8. Janet is always willing to help others; she certainly has a ________________.
  9. The stand-up comedian had everyone in his audience ________________ with his puny jokes and witty sarcasm.
  10. The two siblings fought with each other over the iPad for almost an hour until they were both ________________.

Have fun writing and see you next time!


P5 and P6 English Creative Writing Tuition

Components covered:

Paper 1

– Composition Writing (with 20 Composition Topics covered)
– Situational Writing

 

Group 48 17 1
Ms. Nellie

As an educator, Ms Nellie believes that every child is unique and learns differently. As such, every classroom experience becomes an opportunity for reflection and spurs the teacher to find different ways to reach out to the child and establish a strong teacher-student relationship which helps to nurture the child holistically. During her free time, Ms Nellie also enjoys reading, watching movies and plays because there’s nothing like a piece of writing coming to life with moving pictures and sounds. A big fan of Dystopian novels and plays, she can always be seen at bookstores with her nose buried in her favourite books.

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