literature

Mystichuntress's Japanese Tutorials: Colours

Deviation Actions

mystichuntress's avatar
Published:
622 Views

Literature Text

Colours



Colours in Japanese can be divided into two categories: い-adjectives (あかい akai) or nouns (みどり midori). This is similar to English. We can use colour words as both adjectives and nouns.
e.g. The red pen.
The pen is red.

All colours have a noun form (which is just the colour word minus the い. However, not all Japanese colours have an adjective form. Therefore, the adjective あかい (akai) for red also has a noun form あか (aka). みどり for green is a noun and has no adjective form. The い sound at the end of みどり does not count as an adjective ending.
Some colours have two forms, both of which are acceptable. The second form is for some noun colours and is created by adding いろ (iro), which means colour, to the end. So みどり can also be みどり-いろ.

When describing the colour of an object, the adjective form is used whenever possible. However, the noun form may also be used. When describing an object with more than one colour, the noun form must be used. Although some of the colours are い-adjectives, you cannot join them the same way as joining other い-adjectives by dropping the final い and adding くて. When joining two colours in noun form, the particle と is used. When joining a colour in the noun form with another noun, the particle の is used. (The same as joining two nouns.)


Examples
あかい スカートを はいています。 (Akai sukaato-o haite-imasu.)
I am wearing a red skirt.

スカートの いろは あか です。 (Sukaato-no iro-wa aka desu.)
The colour of the skirt is red.

あかと しろの スカートを はくことが すき です。(Aka-to shiro-no sukaato-o haku koto ga suki desu.)
I like to wear red and white skirts.



I will provide two lists: One for colour adjectives, one for colour nouns. It is not a full list, but contains most of the colours you would use.




Adjective form of colours


あかい - akai
red

あおい - aoi
blue

きいろい - kiiroi
yellow

くろい - kuroi
black

しろい - shiroi
white

ちゃいろい - chairoi
brown




Noun form of colours


あか - aka
red

あお - ao
blue

きいろ - kiiro
yellow

くろ - kuro
black

しろ - shiro
white

みどり(いろ) - midori (iro)
green

はいいろ / ねずみいろ - haiiro / nezumiiro
grey

ピンク - pinku
pink

ちゃいろ - chairo
brown

こんいろ - koniro
navy blue

むらさき(いろ) - murasaki (iro)
purple

オレンジ(いろ) - orenji (iro)
orange

はだいろ / ももいろ- hada iro / momo iro
peach colour

みずいろ - mizuiro
light blue

きみどりいろ - kimidori iro
yellow-green

Colours as requested :)
I have included notes about how colours should be used. I think that's all that needs to be known, I may have missed something.
© 2012 - 2024 mystichuntress
Comments15
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Teddy-Grahams's avatar
Isn't this nice. You've helped me return back to the basics.
I've known that color words were spelled differently but I've never actively found out why. Well I know now. :]
This is good info for building blocks in learning a language---always return to the basics.
Thx for the edu. (~'u'~)v