Contrastive there is also an appropriate idiom

CONTRASTIVE ANALYSISOF IDIOMS                                                                          6Idioms formed with the colour redThe conceptual meaning of the colour red in Oxford OnlineEnglish Dictionary is ? Of a colour at the end ofthe spectrum next to orange and opposite violet, as of blood, fire, or rubies.;(of a person or their face) flushed or rosy, especially with embarrassment, anger, or heat.? Some further associations with this colour are love and hell. Its French equivalent is rouge and bothlanguages are abundant in idioms containing red.

1)      red-blooded (vigorous or virile) = au sang chaud2)      red as a beetroot (red-faced, typically through embarrassment )– rouge comme une pivoine (red as a peony)The idioms above havea partial French equivalent, while the idioms below have an absolute equivalent: 3)      red carpet (privileged treatment of a distinguished visitor)= le tapis rouge4)      run a red light  (to pass through an intersection having a red traffic light without stopping) = griller un feu rougeRed is also a colourof shame and anger because our faces usually become red when we are ashamed orangry and therefore in both languages are used idioms with red for thesestates:  5)     see red (becomevery angry suddenly.) = voir rouge6)      red-faced ( Blushing from embarrassment) = se fâcher tout rouge Idioms formed with the colour blueFrench equivalent for blue is bleu. This colour isusually associated with sky, sea and in a more metaphorical context with peaceand aristocracy. Since it is associated with aristocracy there is also anappropriate idiom blue blood (noble birth) = avoir du sang bleu. However, the idiom blue-collar relates to manual workor workers.

Some idiomscontaining blue are: 7)      men in blue (policemen) = hommes en bleu8)      blue-eyed boy (a person highly regarded by someone and treated withspecial favor) = le couchou (darling, favorite)9)      a bolt from the blue ( a sudden and unexpected event or piece of news) =  un coup de tonnerre dans un ciel bleu10)  out of the blue ( unexpectedly) = à l’improviste (unexpected)CONTRASTIVE ANALYSISOF IDIOMS                                                                          711)  blue ribbon (a badge given as first prize to the winner of acompetition) = le ruban bleu12)  oncein a blue moon ( very rarely) = tous les trente-six du mois is literally translated as ? every thirty sixth ofthe month? From the examplesabove we can conclude that English idioms containing blue have partianequivalents in French and rarely absolute equivalents. Idioms formed with the colour greenOxford English Dictionary definesgreen as: ? Of the colour between blue and yellow in the spectrum; coloured likegrass or emeralds?. Green is used as a symbol for vegetation, nature, life, clean environment and a number of idioms contain it in this sense: 13)  to have green fingers or to have a green thumb (to be good withplants) = avoir la main verte14)  greenbelt (an area of open land around a city, on which buildingis restricted) = ceinture verteGreen has anothersymbolic meaning, that of being young and inexperienced: 15)  a little green (having little or no experience in a given field, specialty, or skill)  has a partially equivalent French idiom années vertes 16)  be as green as grass (have little experience or knowledge) is a non-equivalent idiom inFrenchCommonly used idiomssuch as to be green with envy and give green light to have their absoluteequivalents in French: 17)  to be green with envy (very envious orjealous) = être vert de colère18)  to give the green light (permission to go ahead with a project)  = donner le feu vert         CONTRASTIVE ANALYSISOF IDIOMS                                                                          8ConclusionTheaim of this paper was to analyse as much as possible English idioms fromvarious English dictionaries and to find their partial or absolute equivalentsin French and to describe and explain the non-equivalent ones. Furthermore, thecorpus of idioms and their symbolism in the paper was obtained from OxfordOnline English Dictionary whereas their French equivalents were found in onlinedictionaries: Collins English-French Dictionary and Reverso Dictionary. Themethod of this contrastive analysis was based on Kvetko´s divison of degrees ofequivalents and the idioms were divided according to those categories and theones of their common metaphorical or symbolic meaning. Both English and Frenchare rich in idiomatic expressions containing colours and the most common onesare those formed with black, white and red.

From this analysis we can concludethat colours are of great importance to our language and vocabulary and thatall languages share a universal system of basic colour categories.