Colors in Spanish (pt. 1) – Lesson 39

Colors in Spanish: part 1

Today we learn the colors in Spanish! This is part 1 of 2. In part 2 we’ll look at things like hair colors, and make sentences with the colors.

Black and white

Are black and white colors? Some people say yes, some say no. I’m not getting into that debate: let’s just learn them!

The colors of the rainbow

Color	Spanish
red	rojo
orange	naranja
yellow	amarillo
green	verde
blue	azul
purple	morado
pink	rosa / rosado

A few pronunciation tips:

• rojo: the j is that throaty h sound: “RO-ho”.
• naranja: you know this one from the fruits lesson: la naranja is the fruit, naranja is the color.
• amarillo: the double l sounds like a y: “a-ma-REE-yo”.
• azul: the z sounds like an s in Latin America (“a-SOOL”), and like “th” in most of Spain.

For pink, you’ll hear both rosa and rosado. In Spain, rosa is more common; in many Latin American countries, rosado. And remember vino rosado (rosé wine) from the drinks lesson?

Brown and gray

Marrón has a double r (rolled!) and a tilde on the ó: “ma-RRON”. In some Latin American countries you’ll also hear café for brown, like the color of coffee.

Silver and gold

For the color, Spanish usually says plateado (silvery) and dorado (golden): un coche plateado, un reloj dorado. The metal itself is la plata and el oro: un anillo de oro (a gold ring).

Colors change with the noun (sometimes)

Colors describe things, so just like cansado / cansada, many of them change with the noun:

Notice that the color comes after the noun in Spanish: “the car black”. Colors ending in -o change to -a for feminine words: negro → negra, blanco → blanca, rojo → roja, amarillo → amarilla, morado → morada.

But colors that don’t end in -o stay the same for masculine and feminine: verde, azul, gris, naranja, rosa, marrón. They only get an -s (or -es) in the plural:

Recap: colors in Spanish

Spanish	English
negro	black
blanco	white
rojo	red
naranja	orange
amarillo	yellow
■■■■■■■■	■■■■■■■■
■■■■■■■■	■■■■■■■■
■■■■■■■■	■■■■■■■■

+ 8 more words & phrases

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Practice: colors

Say it out loud first, then click to check.

1. What color is a banana?

Amarillo.

2. What color is the sky (on a good day)?

Azul.

3. What color is a tomato?

Rojo.

4. Say “the white shirt”.

La camisa blanca.

5. Say “the green house”.

La casa verde. (Verde doesn’t change!)

6. Say “a gold ring”.

Un anillo de oro.

Quiz: colors in Spanish

10 questions. ¡Vamos!

Frequently asked questions

How do I ask “what color is it?”

¿De qué color es? Literally “of what color is it?” For example: ¿De qué color es tu coche? (What color is your car?)

How do I say light blue or dark green?

Add claro (light) or oscuro (dark): azul claro (light blue), verde oscuro (dark green). We’ll see more in part 2.

Before you go to the next lesson

Don’t rush through these: take a moment to study the colors before you move on. Look around you and name the colors of things in Spanish! Grab the free reference sheet below. See you in part 2.