shadow = Schatten
shade = Schattierung

Dankeschön für die schnelle Antwort!!! aber in "ninety six degrees in the shade" heisst shade doch auch schatten, oder? ich versteh da den unterschied noch nicht so ganz...

Na ja, Kontext halt. "Shade" kann auch als Schatten übersetzt werden, aber die 40 shades of green in Ireland können zwangsläufig nur Schattierungen dieser Farbe sein.

okay, ich glaub so einigermassen hab ichs verstanden =) ist nämlich hausaufgabe ;) vielen dank nochmal!!!

shadow is used when you are talking about the possesive, like "I'm standing in the building's shadow". And people have shadows, not shade.

Shade is a general term you use when you are talking about a cool place, like "Lets find some shade to stand in, cause it's hot as balls out here"

I dunno if it is the same for the two german words though

shadow - der Schatten, den ein einzelnes Objekt produziert

shade - der Schatten als generelles Phänomen (deshalb auch bei Temperaturangaben)

A shadow is the actual dark area cast by an object in the sun.

"I can see my shadow."
"That tree casts a rather large shadow."

Shade is a reference to the dark area, but it doesn't key in on any particular object casting it. It can (and is) often be made up of the shadows of multiple objects

"Let's go sit in the shade under those trees." (In other words, "Let's go sit in the shadows of those trees." That sounds weird, though.)
"It's much cooler in the shade."

You could say, "in the shadows." That, however, is used to express someone doing something sneaky or secretly (generally, in an underhanded sense).

f5: I agree w/ Matt's take on the subject, as my not-quite-typed-fast-enough post shows.

"in the sun or any other source of light."

In a nuttshell:
shadow = Schatten (einenes Objektes)
shade = im Schatten

Thank you very very much!!!! that helped me a lot!!