Using colors to describe an object

try using colors to describe an object in the Polish language.

For example, this book is black and white, or blackish-white.

Good idea.

It'll never catch on.

Also, when using the colors you have learned, Polish has a unique way of describing certain objects. For example, other than just saying that something is either black, or black and white, you can also use the following construction:

Czarno-biały (blackly white)

Pomarańczowo-niebieska (orangely blue)

Zielono-żółty (greenly yellow)

Biało-czerwona (whitely red)

For example:

Polska flaga jest biało-czerwona.

- Polish flag is white and red.

Ten telewizor jest czarno-biały.

- This TV set is black and white.

(languagelearninglab/lesson6.aspx)

You would also have to be careful about the use of colours because ten teliwizor jest czarno-biały may only refer to the box in which the electronic components are physically housed. At home, I would probably say something like the 'odbiór tego telewizora jest tylko biało-czarny' to distinguish its actual physical screen colour from that of the wooden box.

Then keep it at home :)


And how popular where black and white TV boxes? I haven't seen such a design (wooden or plastic) ever.

I have, in Poland all the time. Nasty cheap televisions made by that wonderful Polish firm called Unitra, have you fogotton those wonderful days of Communist Polish engineering? A nice Polish made television set in its nice gray plastic box would look really nice and smooth and 'classy' on the back seat of my open roof sports car, that wonderful 0 to sixty in just 3.4 hours Polish one liter Serenka sports car, with ABS breaking i e simply by forcing my shoes on to the road surface through the rust holes in the floor panels and hoping that friction will stop the car. Yes, colours are an excellent way to learn the Polish Language and understand polish culture except that the only colour that will stick in your mind is gray-flat nasty uninteresting gray. The gray PEWEX, the gray Serenka, the gray Polonez, the gray Stocznia in Gdańsk, the gray concrete blocks that appear in every Polish town and city-do I need to go on? Learn the Polish word szary or szary and why not another colour, how about even szary? Enough said?

No, there's no need, you've totally lost it.

These were very popular in the 60s and the 70s in the UK; however, in the eighties they were relegated to caravans and garden sheds.

One funny thing I remember as a child was the commentators describing the colours because most people had black and white TV's.
There was even a famous piece of commentary on a snooker match, where the commentator said something like, "and he has found himself in a real problem now stuck behind the blue ball... for those of you who are watching in black and white it is beside the green ball" lol

LOL, I'm old enough to remember B&W TV, but I was referring to Michal's remark about the wooden/plastic case in which the TV set (tube, CRT) was enclosed (usually silver or black, but also brown and maybe gray in the past, not black and white).

Poland only had black and white television until the Poles bought Russian colour television sets.

Ok, we are offically off subject. Oh well, can't blame me for trying

you've been warned:

First, it's telewizor.

Second, bialo-czarny in reference to TV or TV-set was ALWAYS used to describe the transmission technology, not the color of the box. Except in your home, it turns out.