"Niebieski kolor"
Translation:The color blue
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It's color in American English, which is also English. But they should maybe be a bit more consistent between the two.
In Polish it behaves a bit similarly, you can say "ten niebieski" (this blue), for example. It's like an adjective that sometimes can be treated kind of as a noun.
Moreover, we do have nouns for colours. Like "czerwień" (red), "zieleń" (green)... and somehow, actually "niebieski" is the only major colour that doesn't have its own noun. Its shades have nouns though: błękit (light blue) and granat (navy blue). But not blue itself. Maybe because it comes from the word "niebo" (sky).
And for that reason, if we actually used the word "kolor" in the Polish phrase, I think it should be translated.
205
So does this mean "the blue colour" (it's a colour, with blue being the descriptor, ie adjective), or "the colour blue" (where blue is the noun)
This makes me curious about the pronunciation of "ie." While talking to a Polish person, she pronounced "oshiem" like "oshem" (English phonetic). But in this pronunciation of "niebieski," it sounded like "nyebeski" (English phonetic). Why does the first "ie" have a "ye" sound? Is that normal for Polish, or a quirk of this voice synthesizer?
542
Do not think of "ie" as of cluster, it's the consonant + "i" that is important here. An "i" makes preceding consonant palatalized i.e. changes "s" in "osiem" into soft "sh" (softer than English one) - "ś". In "niebieski" this occurs three times as "ni" is changed to "ń" (sounds like Spanish ñ), "bi" and "ki" are palatalized. "i" after "k" is pronounced because there is no other vowel to create a syllable.
"Niebieski" is actually an adjective, describing the noun "kolor" which is m.inan. For the declension of "niebieski", take a look at https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/niebieski and click the "show declension" button.
Well, "niebieski" is almost a toponym, like, for example "Poznański". The latter means "of, from, or pertaining to "Poznań", whereas "niebieski" comes from the word "niebo" ("sky") so it's "skyish" (hard to believe in the U.K.)
There also seems to be a "morski" which is a bluish/greenish colour (pertaining to the "sea")