Let's talk about colors in Japanese
Color in Japanese is いろ (色).
In Japan, the standard colors are Black,
Red, Blue, White, and Yellow. These colors have the 'i-adjectives'.
Like most non-English speaking
countries, Japanese also have English loan words for color. These loan words
are written in Katakana.
Listed below are the noun words of
each color:
Primary colors (原色):
Red - あか / レッド
Yellow -
きいろ / イエロー
Blue - あお / ブルー
Secondary Colors (二次色):
Green - みどり / グリーン
Purple -
むらさき / パープル
Orange -
だいだいいろ / オレンジ
Blue and Green were the same Kanji 青 (あお) before 緑 (みどり) word entered
Japan during Heian Period and that time みどり was considered as the shade of blue. あお was used to describe certain 'green'
things like vegetables and apples. The
traffic light 'green' that signals one 'to go' is referred to as あお even though the
Japanese know that it is green. So, don't get confused when a Japanese says 青信号 (あおしんごう) meaning green
light.
Neutral
Colors:
White - しろ / ホワイト
Black - くろ / ブラック
Brown - ちゃいろ / ブラウン
Grey - はいいろ / グレー
Other
Colors:
Pink - ももいろ / ピンク
Sakura
(Light Pink) - さくらいろ
Sky Blue
– そらいろ / スカイブルー
Light
Blue – みずいろ / ライトブルー
Beige - ベージュ
Gold - きんいろ / ゴールド
Silver -
ぎんいろ / シルバー
Turquoise
- ターコイズ
Bronze -
せいどういろ / ブロンズ
Copper -
あかがねいろ
Rainbow colors in Japanese is にじいろ (虹色).
The Japanese for Red, Orange, Yellow,
Green, Blue are listed above.
Indigo - あいいろ / インジゴ
Violet -
むらさき / バイオレット
Violet and Purple have the same Japanese
Kanji. Purple is the combination of red and blue, or violet lights. I am not an
expert in colors but for some both Violet and Purple are perceived as the same.
Though the Violet color can also be
translated to すみれいろ.
The ‘i-adjectives’ for standard
colors:
くろ is the noun word
for Black. くろい is the
adjective of Black.
あか is for the noun
of Red while its adjective is あかい.
あお as the noun word
for blue. It becomes あおい if it's used as adjectives.
しろ becomes しろい if it is used
as the adjective of white.
きいろ is the noun
while きいろい is the
adjective of Yellow.
If you want to learn my previous post, you can
check it through the link below:
>> 【Spanish Lesson #3】Vocabularies
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