What Is a Green Onion?

21 What Is a Green Onion? Luen is learning English in Canada. One day, he was going to the grocery store. His Canadian friend asked him to buy some green onions for him. “ Sure, " he replied. Easy to do. He knew what an onion is-a round bulb. But on the way to the grocery store, Luen wondered, " What is a green onion? It must be an onion that is green. " When he entered the store, Luen looked at all the onions. He didn't find any that were obviously green. There were red, white, purple and even brown onions-various skin colours, but none of them were green. “ Maybe the colour of the onion is not exactly same as its name, " Luen thought. So he peeled some onions to see if the colour inside was green. Yes, the white onion had a little bit of green underneath. He relaxed. “ Okay, I finally found green onions. " So he gladly bought the white onion and headed home happily.

When he brought back the “ green" onion, his friend was puzzled, “ Why did you buy a white onion instead of a green onion?" Luen answered, “ Look, the inside of this onion is green. This is the closest I was able to find. " His friend burst out laughing. Now he understood. He then explained that a green onion is a different kind of onion. It is a young onion with green shoots. Its white bulb end has not fully developed. Mostly people use it for its long green stalks. Luen now knew what a green onion was. His friend explained that in English, some words are formed by two words. We call them compound words. Sometimes, the two parts of compound words are joined without a space and look like one word. Other times, they are not joined. Also, they might not have the same meaning as the original words. For example, “ eggplant" has nothing to do with eggs. A “ hot dog" is not a dog. It's a sausage. A " sweet potato" is not a potato at all. Luen was a little bit embarrassed. But he was happy too. That day, he learned a good lesson about English words.