Show true colors

ср, 03/28/2018 - 16:53 Марина


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Hello – hello! I’m gonna tell you about a very interesting idiom ‘To show somebody’s true colors’. For example, at the beginning of your relationship you meet a person and he seems so kind and so generous, and so polite, and so interesting – and you think ‘This is the best person I have ever met’. But then after a couple of months you see that something is wrong. That he’s not so kind anymore, he’s not so polite anymore and that he’s not so generous anymore. So you say ‘After a couple of months he showed me his true colors – his real personality.

At work it can be the same. For example, I am a boss and I want to hire a new person. And the candidate seems so reliable and so efficient and he says that he always works well under stress. But then after you have hired him, you see that he’s unreliable, that he’s irresponsible and that he never finishes his work on time. So you can say ‘After I have hired him I saw his true colors or he showed me his true colors’.

I hope that was useful for you and that your friends always stay the same like you met them. Bye-bye!


Complete the gaps using the correct form of ‘Show/see somebody’s true colors’ 


  1. – Why are you saying all these bad things about him? He seems so nice…  They always seem nice, but believe me in a couple of months he _________________!
  2. – Why did you get divorced? – Well you know…First she did everything for me, but after the wedding she _________________. And I couldn’t handle it anymore.
  3. – I hate it when people pretend to be kind and after you start trusting them they _________________. That is so frustrating!
  4. – You didn’t even look at my CV! – CV is not important. I know that I can _________________ your _________________ only after you work here for a while. You can start on Monday!
  5. He seemed so self-confident, but last week I _________________. When he attacked the boy who was flirting with me last week.




  1. In your opinion how long does it take to really get to know a person?
  2. Why do you think so many people pretend to be something that they are not?