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- Topic: Polish >
- "Biały i czerwony to kolory."
31 Comments
Could also be Denmark, Japan, Canada, Switzerland, Austria, Monaco, Indonesia, Peru etc. but we can say Poland. :P
Hmm... both biały and czerwony are adjectives, can color adjectives be used as a noun in Polish?
They have their own nouns (biel and czerwień, for the two present here), but yeah, one could say that they can be treated like nouns: "Zielony to mój ulubiony kolor" (Green is my favourite colour) will be probably even more natural then "Zieleń to mój ulubiony kolor".
I see. BTW, while I was searching for this, I saw that on the Polish Wikipedia they used "Barwa biała", then I searched and found that barwa seems to mean color also. What is the difference between kolor and barwa? Or are they just synonyms?
In everyday usage they're synonyms (I opened "Barwa pomarańczowa" on Wikipedia and it is even defined as "kolor").
However, some fields (polygraphy, art) may differentiate between the two: 'barwa' is then the 'visual impression' that your brain creates after seeing a given 'kolor' - and it can be different because of light, the material it is used on, other colours present nearby, and so on.
Rus: белый, Ukr: бiлий, Pol: biały е - i - ia a quite frequent vowel correspondence
You can say "są kolorami".
"to są kolory" would be probably acceptable but not really such a great option.
I wanted to type this with each word ending in "y". However, I listened to the audio three times and it sounded like each word ended in "e". Aaaaargh!!!
Sounds fine to me, although: well, first of all I know what I expect, and second, as I'm Polish it's easier for me to perceive the 'y' sound.
Yes, but as this is plural, it will not be "jest" but "są": "Biały i czerwony są kolorami".
The basic forms are masculine, because they 'describe' the noun "kolor", which is masculine.
To use "biała" you need some feminine noun, e.g. "biała ściana" = "white wall".
I think I'd say something like "Biały i czerwony razem dają pomarańczowy".
As "kolor" itself is masculine, than white and red have to match it as well.
In EN it would be 'red and white are colours' as essentially the same rules apply in each language for 'longest sound last' in a list. But whatever.
Hate to be a pain, but white is not a colour. It is by defintion an absents of colour.
Rather the opposite; white light is all colors of light combined. Hence, when a beam of light travels through a prism, it is separated into the various wavelengths (colors).
You are both right, depending on whether it's additive or subtractive. The difference between your TV screen and paint.
