Spoken English

What expressions do we use with the words “black” and “white” in conversational English? Look at the examples below, and read the explanations to learn some useful phrases.

Colourful idioms and useful phrases

Common words and phrases

The words black and white are often used with nouns to make compound words or phrases. Everyone knows what a

black-and-white photo is, and that schoolteachers used to write on a blackboard but nowadays use a whiteboard instead. Most people know that the English are famous for their black

humour. You may also know that a blackbird is a garden bird (but only the male is black) and that a white Christmas is a Christmas with snow.

Perhaps you also know that planes always carry a black box containing a flight recorder, that a blacksmith is someone who makes shoes for horses (and other things made of iron), that a

blackcurrant is a small fruit and that white-water rafting is a popular sport on fast-flowing rivers.

Some other phrases with “black” and “white”, however, are not so obvious:

White horses, for example, can be animals, but they’re also sea ⋅ waves with white crests:

Let’s not go out in the boat in this rough weather. There are too many white horses on the waves.

If you whitewash a wall, you paint it white. However, “whitewashing” can also describe an attempt to conceal unpleasant or incriminating ⋅ facts about a person or organization:

Most people think the government report is a whitewash. A white-collar worker is an employee in an office job — as opposed ⋅ to a “blue-collar worker”, who works in a factory:

The company plans to support white-collar workers.

Black ice is very smooth ice that is particularly dangerous because ⋅ it looks black and is therefore hard to see:

Drive carefully tonight. There’s black ice on the roads.

If ⋅ you sell something on the black market, you sell it illegally: The internet makes it much easier to sell stolen goods on the black market.

If someone blackmails you, they threaten to reveal damaging information ⋅ to get money or some other benefit from you: They tried to blackmail him. They said they had photos of him in a nightclub with a woman who wasn’t his wife.

“Black” and “white” idioms

If something is in black and white, it is available in writing and you ⋅ can show it to people:

My boss has promised me a promotion this year. I have it in black and white.

If you’re in the black, you have money available (and are not “in ⋅ the red” — another way of saying that you’re in debt): We haven’t spent too much on eating out, so I think we’ll be in the black this month.

If you’re in someone’s black books, they don’t like you because of ⋅ something you’ve done:

I’m in my mum’s black books because I was late for dinner. If someone gives you a black look (or black looks), they’re angry with ⋅ you for some reason:

I don’t know why Emily keeps giving me black looks. Have I offended her in some way?

And if you’re the black sheep of the family, your family don’t approve of you because you’ve done something bad or because they ⋅ don’t like your lifestyle:

No one ever talks about Uncle Ernest. He’s the black sheep of the family because he’s always in trouble with the police. If you tell a white lie, you usually do so to get out of an uncomfortable ⋅ situation or to avoid hurting a person’s feelings:

I knew the truth would upset him, so I told a little white lie. If ⋅ you go as white as a sheet, you go pale because you’re shocked:

Eric went as white as a sheet when he heard the news.