being/having green-eyed

[eli7]

Greetings,

Which one is correct? being green-eyed or having green-eyed?

My friend has / is green-eyed.

 

[RJT98]

Being green-eyed is correct, if you wanted to use the verb "to have" you'd say "to have green eyes".

 

[Barque]

My friend is green-eyed.
My friend has green eyes.

Green-eyed is an adjective.

In green eyes, green is an adjective and eyes is the plural of eye, a noun.

 

[eli7]

Thanks both.
I meant "jealous","envious" by green-eyed here.
Does the sentence "my friend has green eyes" sounds opaque to me. Does it mean she is jealous? or it means she has beautiful green eyes( the color of her eyes are green)?

 

[Florentia52]

In the proper context, you might be able to make your meaning clear. Absent any context, "My friend has green eyes" would be taken to mean that green is the actual color of her irises.

 

[eli7]

So you mean that My friend has green eyes can have two meanings, depending on the context:
1- the color of the eye
2- being jealous

Did I get it right?

 

[RJT98]

I think you'd need to change the context a little, because in any way you use the sentence "My friend has green eyes" the other person will interpret that as your friend literally having green irises. But if you said, "I have a friend who is very green-eyed," it would make it sound like you are no longer talking about her eye colour and more about her personality which, depending on how you elaborate, could mean envious, jealous or evil.

 

[Myridon]

But if you said, "I have a friend who is very green-eyed," it would make it sound like you are no longer talking about her eye colour

In AE, I would still think her eyes were very green. There is the bit from Othello about jealousy being a green-eyed monster but that doesn't affect my use of "green-eyed" by itself.

 

[Hermione Golightly]

Context.

 

[RJT98]

In AE, I would still think her eyes were very green. There is the bit from Othello about jealousy being a green-eyed monster but that doesn't affect my use of "green-eyed" by itself.

I think it depends on where you are in the world and the contexts that you follow. In BE green-eyed could easily mean both, but it depends on the context.

 

[JustKate]

It's possible that context would make the meaning clear - I can imagine contexts in which it would be - but normally if I wanted to indicate that someone is jealous, what I'd say is "green-eyed with jealousy."

 

[london calling]

I think it depends on where you are in the world and the contexts that you follow. In BE green-eyed could easily mean both, but it depends on the context.

Exactly. I'm blue-eyed. My husband was green-eyed: my eyes are blue, his were green.