green fingers

Meaning

1. 1nounpluralBritish

   A natural talent for growing plants and keeping them healthy.

   Grammar: Used with have or with a possessive: she has green fingers, not a green finger.

   Patterns

   • have green fingers
   • someone has green fingers

   My grandmother has green fingers; anything she plants seems to flourish.

   I killed my cactus, so I clearly do not have green fingers.

   You need green fingers to keep orchids alive in a dry flat.

Common combinations

have green fingers

My neighbor has green fingers and her roses win prizes.

not have green fingers

I do not have green fingers, so I buy plastic plants.

someone with green fingers

Ask someone with green fingers how to save the tomatoes.

seem to have green fingers

He seems to have green fingers, since everything in his garden is thriving.

Synonyms and how they differ

green thumb

Green thumb is the American form of the same idiom, and a British speaker would normally say green fingers.

gardening talent

This is a plain description, while green fingers is a vivid idiom that sounds warmer and more natural in conversation.

knack

A knack is a skill for any kind of task, so it needs a phrase like for gardening to match the meaning.

Opposites

Word family

green adjective

the color of leaves

finger noun

part of the hand

gardener noun

a person who grows plants

gardening noun

the activity of growing plants

Commonly confused: green fingers or green-eyed?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “green fingers”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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