“I said your hair is a terrible red, but don’t worry. I had a friend once who had red hair like yours . When she grew up, it became a beautiful brown.”

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hello!

I have a question about the sentences below:

“I said your hair is a terrible red, but don’t worry. I had a friend once who had red hair like yours . When she grew up, it became a beautiful brown.”

Why is there “a” in front of “terrible red” and “beautiful brown”? Isn’t it okay to say “Your hair is terrible red”? I guess… there are so many hues or shades of each color and the speaker want to say a hue of the color. What do you think? I’m curious.

Thanks in advance,
sweetpumpkin

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2

Maybe it’s the short version of “a beautiful kind of red”.

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3

I think of it as a short version of “a beautiful shade of red.”

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4

To me, it seems to mean ‘Your hair looks terrible in red’ and ‘It became beautiful in brown.’

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5

Normally we would say shade instead of hue. Shade is more of an every day layman’s term. Hue is normally used in more technical discussions.

A shade of red means one out of many shades.

“Isn’t it okay to say “Your hair is terrible red”?”

This would sound a little odd. It implies that all red colors are terrible.

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7

Oh, I didn’t think “terrible red” implies that all red colors are terrible. Thank you!

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