grünes Licht geben
to give the green light; to give the go-ahead
Origin
The image comes from traffic and railway signalling, where green means 'go'. As an idiom for permission it is a loan translation from English ('to give the green light') and became common in the 20th century.
Building blocks
Words in this expression
der Chef· boss (male)endlich· finallygeben· to givegegeben· givendas Licht· lightdas Projekt· project
Grammar that uses this word
- Perfect tense of separable verbs (hat aufgemacht)Perfekt trennbarer Verben
- Subordinate clause with 'weil' (because, causal)Nebensatz mit 'weil' (Kausalsatz)
- Subordinate clause with 'wenn' (if/when, temporal/conditional)Nebensatz mit 'wenn' (temporal/konditional)
- Polite subjunctive II: 'würde' + infinitive (would)Konjunktiv II höflich: 'würde' + Infinitiv
- Verbs with dative and accusative (geben, schenken …)Verben mit Dativ und Akkusativ (geben, schenken …)
- Future I with 'werden' + infinitiveFutur I mit 'werden' + Infinitiv
Examples
Der hat grünes für das neue .
The boss has finally given the green light for the new project.