- Forum >
- Topic: Japanese >
- "青いシャツをきます。"
"青いシャツをきます。"
Translation:I wear a blue shirt.
20 Comments
42
Because 青 means blue in this context (I guess it means blue in Japanese in most cases).
This word is the most confusing character expressing a color. In Chinese it can mean blue, green and black and usually confuses me a lot, so I avoid using it (in Chinese) except where the context limits its meaning sufficiently.
The translation literally said both blue and green were acceptable translations....
See sweg's comment. Basically "ao" doesnt cleanly match up with blue and includes some greens. In general its safe to use "midori" whenever you mean specifically green but there are two major exceptions -- both green traffic lights and vegetables are described as aoi, not midori.
- 1102
When I learnt about the green and blue concept in Japanese, my reaction was exactly as in your profile picture...
みお ちゃん、これ は へん ですね？
More specifically, 蓝(lán) is blue, 緑(lǜ) is green, and 青(qīng) could be blue, green or black, depending on the object described and context. 青 is the more historic/literary word from back before Indo-European influences, when the line between blue and green was less concrete.
so... let's just say it's a kinda "dark cold colour". or perhaps even not necessarily dark?
- 42
青菜 and 青蛙 are green, 青天 and 《青鸟》 (an opera) are blue, 青丝 is black. And I (as a Chinese) don't know what 青色 exactly is....I avoid using it except some well-known contexts.
I'm guessing "I wear the blue shirt" would also be acceptable here? Duo doesn't currently like it.
One is a noun. The other is an adjective. There is a bit of over-lap (you can use 青 as a の adjective), but that is the main difference.
青は好きな色です。
"Blue is my favorite color."
青いドレスを着ています。
"I am wearing a blue dress."
空は青い。
"The sky is blue."
