Teach Yourself Japanese
Message Board

Subject: Re: aoi
From: TAKASUGI Shinji (tssf.airnet.ne.jp)
Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 11:10:55 GMT
References: 1

> Suppose there were two small boxes in front of a Japanese person, one light blue and one turquoise, if I say 「青い箱を渡して下さい」 would there be confusion?

Japanese usually don't use precise color names if not necessary. In this case, 緑 (みどり) is enough for the turquoise box because turquoise is closer to pure green than light blue is. 青緑 (あおみどり) is good, but it seems to me redundant in this situation.

You can't use 青 (あお) because both light blue and turquoise are close to pure blue. You should use 白 (しろ) っぽい, which means whitish, or 水色 (みずいろ) for the light blue box.


Reply to this message

Show this thread
Return to the index


Program Copyright(C) TAKASUGI Shinji (tssf.airnet.ne.jp)