Learning the colours in Japanese takes ten minutes. Using them correctly takes slightly longer, because the language applies a rule almost no word list mentions: only four colours are true adjectives. Every other one is a noun, and a noun cannot sit directly against another noun. It needs の.
So « a red car » and « a green car » are not built the same way. That is the only real difficulty here, and once you have seen it you will not forget it.
四The four genuine adjective colours
Four colours exist in an adjectival form, recognisable by their い ending. They are the oldest colour words in the language, which is no coincidence: they are also the only ones old Japanese truly distinguished.
- 赤い · akai · red
- 青い · aoi · blue
- 白い · shiroi · white
- 黒い · kuroi · black
These attach straight to the noun, with nothing in between.
赤い車
akai kuruma
a red car
のEvery other colour needs の
Green, yellow, pink, purple and the rest are nouns. To describe an object with a noun, Japanese inserts の, the particle that links two nouns.
緑の車
midori no kuruma
a green car
Dropping that の is the most common beginner mistake on this topic, and it is immediately audible. If の still feels vague, it is one of the core particles we went through in the guide to Japanese particles.
Two edge cases worth knowing
黄色 (kiiro, yellow) and 茶色 (chairo, brown) are nouns, so 黄色の. But you will also hear 黄色い and 茶色い, and both are accepted. These two take either construction. They are the only ones that do.
表The full list
Traditional colours are written in kanji or hiragana. Colours borrowed from English are written in katakana, and those are usually the easiest to recognise by ear.
- 赤 · aka · red (adjective: 赤い)
- 青 · ao · blue (adjective: 青い)
- 白 · shiro · white (adjective: 白い)
- 黒 · kuro · black (adjective: 黒い)
- 緑 · midori · green
- 黄色 · kiiro · yellow
- 茶色 · chairo · brown
- 紫 · murasaki · purple
- 灰色 · haiiro · grey
- 水色 · mizuiro · light blue, literally « water colour »
- 金色 · kiniro · gold
- 銀色 · giniro · silver
- ピンク · pinku · pink
- オレンジ · orenji · orange
- グレー · gurē · grey
- ベージュ · bēju · beige
- シルバー · shirubā · silver
You will spot 色 (iro), meaning « colour », inside several words: 黄色, 茶色, 灰色, 水色. It makes a useful memory hook, and the word works alone too: 何色ですか (nani iro desu ka), « what colour is it? »
青Why a green traffic light is blue in Japan
This is the part every Japanese learner remembers. A traffic light on green is 青信号 (ao shingō), the « blue signal ». A green apple is a 青りんご, a blue apple. An inexperienced young person is 青い.
It is not confusion, it is inheritance. Old Japanese did not separate blue from green: 青 covered the whole range. 緑 emerged later as a distinct colour, but the fixed expressions kept the older split. Modern Japanese distinguishes the two perfectly well; it simply carries on saying « blue » wherever usage settled.
It is a useful reminder that languages do not cut the colour spectrum in the same places.
用The phrases you will actually use
- 何色ですか · nani iro desu ka · what colour is it?
- 赤いのをください · akai no o kudasai · I will take the red one, please
- 青が好きです · ao ga suki desu · I like blue
- この色はきれいです · kono iro wa kirei desu · this colour is beautiful
Look at the structure of the second one: 赤いの, literally « the red one », where の stands in for the object you are talking about. It is extremely handy in a shop.
要Key points
- Only four colours are true adjectives: 赤い, 青い, 白い, 黒い.
- All the others are nouns and need の before the noun they describe.
- 黄色 and 茶色 accept both forms.
- 青 historically covered blue and green, hence the « blue » traffic light.
- Katakana colours come from English and can be guessed by ear.