Japanese/Vocabulary/Colors
< Japanese | Vocabulary
| Japanese | English | Reading | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 赤 | red | あか | |
| 橙色 | orange | だいだいいろ オレンジ | |
| 黄色 | yellow | きいろ | |
| 緑 | green | みどり | グリーン is also commonly used when referencing the color of clothing, shoes or other manufactured items. みどり however, is more often used when describing green that is found in nature (ie. green color found on leaves or grass) |
| 水色 | light blue | みずいろ | |
| 青 | blue | あお | あお originally encompassed both blue and green. It is mainly used for blue in modern times. The green traffic-light is called |
| 紫 | purple | むらさき | |
| 茶色 | brown | ちゃいろ | |
| 白 | white | しろ | |
| グレー グレイ 灰色 鼠色 | gray | はいいろ ねずみいろ | グレー (also spelled as グレイ) is used more colloquially than ねずみいろ or 灰色 which are traditional Japanese words, meaning mouse-color and ash color, respectively. |
| 黒 | black | くろ | |
| ピンク 桃色 | pink | ももいろ | ピンク (a transliteration of 'pink') is more commonly used than ももいろ (lit. peach colour) which is a traditional Japanese word. |
| 金色 | gold | きんいろ | |
| 銀色 | silver | ぎんいろ |
- Note that the six basic colors, black, white, red, yellow, brown, and blue are in their noun forms. Adding -い(-i) to the end of these colors will make them adjectives, allowing them to be placed before a noun: 赤い red (adj.), 青い blue (adj.), 黄色い yellow (adj.), 茶色い brown (adj.), 白い white (adj.), 黒い black (adj.).
Advanced edit
| English | (native words and compound words) |
(Chinese words) |
(Loanwords) |
note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| red | レッド | |||
| orange | ( |
オレンジ | ||
| pale orange | ペールオレンジ | |||
| golden yellow | ゴールデンイエロー | |||
| yellow | イエロー | |||
| yellowish green | ||||
| green | グリーン | |||
| aqua blue | ( |
(アクアブルー) | ||
| blue | ( |
ブルー | ||
| indigo | ( |
インディゴブルー | ||
| purple | ( |
パープル | ||
| brown | ブラウン | 茶色い服 (brown wear)、栗色の髪 (brown hair)、褐色の肌 (brown skin) | ||
| white | ホワイト | |||
| gray | ( |
グレー/グレイ | ||
| black | ブラック | |||
| pink | ( |
ピンク | ||
| gold | ゴールド | |||
| silver | ( |
シルバー |
Verbs edit
grammar rules:
- adj → become ～ verb (～になる)
- ～い → ～む (e.g. 悲しい → 悲しむ, 赤い → 赤む)
- noun → take on ～ verb (～を帯びる)
- ～ → ～ばむ (e.g. 汗 → 汗ばむ, 赤 → 赤ばむ)
- verb → passive verb
- ～ → (imperfective form of ～)る (e.g. 忘る → 忘れる)
| English intransitive | Japanese intransitive | intransitive example | English transitive | Japanese transitive | transitive example | notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| become red | ( |
make (it) red | ( |
|||
| become blue | make (it) blue | 青む+ | ||||
| become yellow | make (it) yellow | |||||
| become black | make (it) black | |||||
| become white | 空が白む | make (it) white |
Variant nouns edit
| English | Japanese | English | Japanese | English | Japanese |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| sense of red | degree of red | if anything, red | |||
| sense of blue | degree of blue | if anything, blue | |||
| sense of green | degree of green | if anything, green | |||
| sense of yellow | degree of yellow | if anything, yellow | |||
| sense of black | degree of black | if anything, black | |||
| sense of white | degree of white | if anything, white |