{"id":22210,"date":"2015-07-09T23:59:16","date_gmt":"2015-07-09T21:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=22210"},"modified":"2017-10-23T16:13:12","modified_gmt":"2017-10-23T14:13:12","slug":"im-blue-da-ba-dee-da-ba-die-shades-of-blue-in-french","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/im-blue-da-ba-dee-da-ba-die-shades-of-blue-in-french\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m blue da ba dee da ba die… Shades of Blue in French!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yo listen up here’s a story<\/em>
\n About a little guy that lives in a blue world<\/em>
\n And all day and all night and everything he sees<\/em>
\n Is just blue like him inside and outside<\/em>
\n Blue his house with a blue little window<\/em>
\n And a blue corvette<\/em>
\n And everything is blue for him and himself<\/em>
\n And everybody around<\/em>
\n ‘Cause he ain’t got nobody to listen to<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Now that I\u2019ve got that song<\/a> stuck into your head, I think it\u2019s safe to say you know today\u2019s topic\u2026 Continuing with the color series (miss the previous posts? le vert<\/a> et le rose<\/a>), we\u2019re going to look at les nuances <\/strong>(shades) and les expressions<\/strong> of blue.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Le bleu <\/strong>is the coolest color \u2013 we see it all around us in nature \u2013 from le ciel <\/strong>(sky) to l\u2019oc\u00e9an<\/strong> (ocean), and even at la cr\u00e9puscule<\/strong> (dusk). That being said, blue foods are a pretty rare occurrence in la nature<\/strong>. Can you think of any natural blue foods besides des myrtilles<\/strong> (blueberries) or des Adirondack Blue<\/strong> (blue potatoes)? Because of its rareness in nature, blue is a great appetite suppressant. Tu veux maigrir <\/strong>(want to lose weight) ? <\/strong>Try eating your food from a blue plate. You could go a little further and dye your foods blue. The color isn\u2019t something we associate with food, so when we see it, we\u2019re not going to be as hungry\u2026<\/p>\n

Revenons \u00e0 nos moutons <\/strong>(let\u2019s get back to the subject at hand)\u2026 Blue is also considered to be the color of la confiance <\/strong>(trust) and la responsabilit\u00e9 <\/strong>(responsibility). It\u2019s said to help release le stress<\/strong> because of its calming powers. Keep that in mind next time you\u2019re painting a room \u2013 surtout <\/strong>(especially) a baby\u2019s room. Blue is also considered to be la couleur <\/strong>of religion \u2013 it\u2019s said to help enhance prayer.<\/p>\n

Blue has also found a way into our language, and it really makes our communication more colorful (Ok, that was a terrible pun. Just go along with it.). Why is someone you support and trust true-blue<\/strong>? Why is something that happens at an unexpected time said to come out of the blue<\/strong>? Why is a sad person said to be blue?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Blue has also found its way into French, too. Want to add some color (sorry, I’ll quit) to your vocabulary? Look no further!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Verbs<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

avoir du bleu \u00e0<\/strong> l\u2019\u00e2me<\/strong> \u2013 to be sad
\navoir du sang bleu<\/strong> \u2013 to be part of the noblesse
\navoir les bleus<\/strong> \u2013 to be sad
\navoir une peur bleue<\/strong> \u2013 to be very scared
\nd\u00e9tenir le ruban bleu<\/strong> \u2013 to come in first place
\ndonner son bleu \u00e0 quelqu\u2019un<\/strong> \u2013 to dismiss\/fire someone
\nen rester bleu<\/strong> \u2013 to be stunned\/flabbergasted
\n\u00eatre bleu de froid<\/strong> \u2013 to turn blue from being cold
\n\u00eatre bleu de quelqu\u2019un\/quelque chose<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(expression belge) <\/em>\u2013 to be in love with
\n\u00eatre chocolat bleu [p\u00e2le]<\/strong> (expression belge) <\/em>\u2013 to be heartbroken
\n\u00eatre fleur bleue<\/strong> \u2013 to be naive
\nfaire le bleu<\/strong> \u2013 to skip class
\nn\u2019y voir que du bleu<\/strong> \u2013 to understand nothing
\npasser au bleu<\/strong> \u2013 to forget
\nrouler du bleu<\/strong> (also said with du gris<\/strong>) \u2013 to manually roll a cigarette
\nse faire avoir comme un bleu<\/strong> \u2013 to be hoodwinked
\nvirer au bleu<\/strong> \u2013 to turn green<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Nouns<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

la bleusaille<\/strong> \u2013 a rookie
\nun cordon bleu<\/strong> \u2013 good cook
\nl\u2019heure bleue<\/strong> \u2013 dawn
\nle sang bleu<\/strong> \u2013 a nobleman
\nle grand bleu<\/strong> \u2013 ocean
\nun col bleu<\/strong> \u2013 blue collar worker
\nla col\u00e8re bleue<\/strong> \u2013 a violently-mad anger
\nla plan\u00e8te bleue<\/strong> \u2013 earth
\nun steak bleu<\/strong> \u2013 very rare steak
\ndu gros bleu<\/strong> \u2013 poor quality red wine
\nun bleu<\/strong> \u2013 bruise\u00a0; new recruit in the army\u00a0; a rookie<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Des Jurons <\/u><\/strong>(cuss words)<\/u><\/p>\n

A lot of these are pretty dated, but there certainly are a lot of them\u2026 These are ways to curse without actually saying anything bad. You\u2019ve probably heard that it\u2019s wrong to take the Lord\u2019s name in vain. The French seem to take that idea literally \u2013 \u201cthe lord\u2019s name\u201d (nom de Dieu<\/strong>) is a curse word in French. To get around that, you could say \u201cnom de bleu!<\/strong>\u201d It\u2019s ok, because it\u2019s sans blaspheme<\/strong>, right? The idea is implied, but you\u2019re not saying it. Rabelais, author of the very famous French pentalogy Gargantua and Pantagruel<\/em><\/strong>, even wrote in one of his texts \u201cVert et bleu!<\/strong>\u201d \u2013 a way of saying nom de Dieu<\/strong> without actually writing it. The phrases rhyme and it fits in the context. No sinning? No problem! Well, that doesn’t fix everything: his texts were certainly considered vulgar at the time, but I digress. Anyway, here are some more:<\/p>\n

sacr\u00e9 bleu !
\n<\/strong>corbleu
\n<\/strong>morbleu
\n<\/strong>foutre bleu
\nventrebleu
\nvertubleu<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now that you\u2019ve got all that down, let\u2019s look at 22 different shades of blue. Enjoy!<\/p>\n

bleu acier<\/strong> \u2013 steel blue
\nbleu \u00e9lectrique <\/strong>\u2013 electric blue
\nbleu givr\u00e9<\/strong> \u2013 frosted blue
\nbleu charrette<\/strong> \u2013 country blue
\nblue turquoise<\/strong> \u2013 turquoise
\nbleu<\/strong> (de) cobalt <\/strong>\u2013 cobalt blue (note: sometimes \u201cde\u201d is used between bleu and cobalt!)
\nbleu barbeau <\/strong>\u2013 cornflower blue
\nbleu c\u00e9rul\u00e9um <\/strong>\u2013 cerulean
\nbleu glacier <\/strong>\u2013 ice blue
\nbleu azur <\/strong>\u2013 azure
\nbleu nuit <\/strong>\u2013 midnight blue
\nbleu \u00e9gyptien <\/strong>\u2013 Egyptian blue
\nbleu cyan <\/strong>\u2013 cyan
\nbleu denim <\/strong>(also: jean<\/strong>) \u2013 denim
\nbleu glauque <\/strong>\u2013 glaucous (from the latin for bluish-gray or green)
\nbleu indigo <\/strong>\u2013 indigo
\nbleu gu\u00e8de <\/strong>\u2013woad (another name for the plant Isatis tinctoria<\/em>) blue
\nbleu ciel <\/strong>\u2013 sky blue
\nbleu drag\u00e9e <\/strong>\u2013 pastel blue
\nbleu paon <\/strong>(also: canard<\/strong>) \u2013 peacock blue
\nbleu saphir <\/strong>\u2013 sapphire blue
\nblue fum\u00e9e <\/strong>\u2013 powder blue<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Yo listen up here’s a story About a little guy that lives in a blue world And all day and all night and everything he sees Is just blue like him inside and outside Blue his house with a blue little window And a blue corvette And everything is blue for him and himself And…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":28805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[348580,348558],"class_list":["post-22210","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vocabulary","tag-le-bleu","tag-les-couleurs"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22210"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28806,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22210\/revisions\/28806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}