Colors

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• The two forms of the Japanese colors
• Colors that are -i adjectives
• Colors that are no-adjectives
• When to use the noun form of  color?
• Exceptions to the rule

Vocabulary covered in this video lesson :

Romaji	English	Hiragana	Kanji
iro	color	いろ	色
aka	red	あか	赤
midori	green	みどり	緑
pinku	pink	ピンク (katakana)
orenji	orange	オレンジ (katakana)
murasaki	purple	むらさき	紫
shiro	white	しろ	白
kuro	black	くろ	黒
haiiro	gray	はいいろ	灰色
kiiro	yellow	きいろ	黄色
ao	blue	あお	青
chairo	brown	ちゃいろ	茶色
kiniro	gold	きんいろ	金色
giniro	silver	ぎんいろ	銀色

 

Extra colors not covered in video lesson:

Romaji	English	Hiragana	Kanji
mizu iro	light blue	みずいろ	水色
kon iro	dark blue	こんいろ
kimidori iro	light green	きみどり	黄緑
daku gurin	dark green	ダークグリーン  (katakana)
fuka midori	dark green	ふかみどり
ta-koizu	turquoise	ターコイズ
hada iro	peach
be-ju	beige	ベージュ
seidou iro	bronze	せいどういろ
akagane iro	copper	あかがねいろ

   The two forms of Japanese colors

Japanese colors have two forms:

   Adjective form
   Noun form

Color	Adjective form	Noun form
red	akai	aka
blue	aoi	ao
yellow	kiiroi	kiiro
black	kuroi	kuro
white	shiroi	shiro
brown	chairoi	chairo

The fact that Japanese colors have two forms can be confusing since this concept doesn’t exist when it comes to colors in the English language.

In the English language colors are said the same way every time regardless of whether the color is modifying the noun in the sentence or not, but in the Japanese language there are two ways to say a color depending on whether the color is modifying a noun or not.

Before moving on, it is important that you know the following:

• ALL Japanese colors have a noun form and an adjective form! (Look at the table below for reference)
• There are two types of adjectives for colors in Japanese:
  i-adjective (Also known as “true adjectives”)
  no-adjective   (Not considered “true adjectives”)
• Most colors are either strictly an i-adjective or strictly a no adjective. Some can be both.

Use the table below for reference on what type of an adjective a specific color is, as well as to learn the noun form of each color.

Color	Adjective form	Noun form
red	akai  (i-adjective)	aka
blue	aoi    (i-adjective)	ao
yellow	kiiroi  (i-adjective)	kiiro
black	kuroi (i-adjective)	kuro
white	shiroi  (i-adjective)	shiro
brown	chairoi  (i-adjective)	chairo
green	midori no  (no-adjective)	midori
purple	murasaki no  (no-adjective)	murasaki
gray	haiiro no (no-adjective)	haiiro
orange	orenji no (no-adjective)	orenji
pink	pinku no (no-adjective)	pinku

 Notice that only 6 colors in the table above are i-adjectives, the rest are no-adjectives! These 6 colors are also referred to as (true adjectives) since they are used the same way adjectives are used in the English language.

example:
English adjective modifying a noun:      red car     
Japanese adjective modifying a noun:   akai kuruma

Colors in their i-adjective form can come right before the noun it is modifying, just like a color comes right before the noun in English! Because of this similarity the 6 colors listed below are called “true adjectives”.

Try to remember the following 6 Japanese colors since they are true adjectives! (also known as i-adjectives):

1. akai (red)
2. aoi  (blue)
3. kiiroi  (yellow)
4. kuroi  (black)
5. shiroi  (white)
6. chairoi  (brown)

The rest of the colors such as midori, murasaki, pinku and so on, are NOT true adjectives, they instead are referred to as “no-adjectives” since you must place the particle (no) after them in order to modify a noun.

example 1:

midori hon                  midori no hon  
green book                              green book

example 2:
pinku doresu               pinku no doresu 
pink dress                               pink dress

In the above examples we see how colors in their noun form such as midori and pinku cannot come directly before the noun it is modifying! So we have to turn the color into an adjective first by adding the particle (no) after it, thus turning it from a noun to a no-adjective. In the Japanese language two nouns such as (midori/green) and (hon/book) cannot come directly before each other and therefor require the particle (no).

Colors that are i-adjectives

The adjective form of the color is used when you are modifying or describing a noun.

ex:

shiroi kuma
white bear

(In this example, bear is the noun that is being described or modified by the color white, therefore we place (shiroi/white) directly before the noun (kuma/bear).

Note that the color is placed right before the noun.

How to form the -i adjective of a color:

In order to turn a color into an i-adjective you simply add an ( i ) to the noun form of the color. Simple right? Let’s look at some examples.

Noun form of color	Add “i”	color is now in it’s i-adjective form!
aka	aka + i	akai
ao	ao + i	aoi
kiiro	kiiro + i	kiiroi
kuro	kuro + i	kuroi
white	shiro + i	shiroi

Okay now that we know how to turn a color into an i-adjective, where do we place it in relation to the noun it is modifying?

Simple! The color is placed directly BEFORE the noun it is modifying.

examples:

• akai ringo
  red apple

• kuroi neko
  black cat

Notice how the placement of the color comes right before the noun it is modifying just like it does in English!

Hooray for similarities!!

Colors that are No-adjectives

No-adjectives are called that because they require that you add the particle (no) after them to turn them into an adjective.

How to form the no-adjective of a color:

As mentioned before, only a select group of colors must be turned into a no-adjective when modifying a noun.

In order to turn the noun form of the color into a (no)adjective you simply add “no” to the word itself.

(Below are the no-adjective colors you will want to remember.)

Noun form of color	Add “no”	color is now in it’s no-adjective form!	Sentence example
midori	midori + no	midori no	midori no ringo wa oishii desu. Green apples are delicious.
pinku	pinku + no	pinku no	pinku no bara wa utsukushii desu. Pink roses are beautiful.
murasaki	murasaki + no	murasaki no
orenji	orenji + no	orenji no
haiiro	haiiro + no	haiiro no

 Example sentences using the two color forms.

Color	i-Adjective form sentence	Noun form sentence
red	akai ringo ga suki desu.	ringo wa aka desu.
	I like red apples.	Apples are red.
blue	aoi kuruma ga suki desu.	kuruma wa ao desu.
	I like blue cars.	The car is blue.
yellow	Kono kiiroi doresu wa kirei desu.	kono doresu wa kiiro desu.
	This yellow dress is pretty.	This dress is yellow.
brown	kono chairoi kuma wa kawaii desu.	Kono kuma wa chairo desu.
	This brown bear is cute.	This bear is brown.

When to use the noun form of a color

We will use the noun form of a color when it is NOT modifying or describing another noun in the sentence.

   noun in a sentence NOT being modified by the color :

• English:       The car is blue
• Japanese:     kuruma wa ao desu.

   noun in the sentence being modified by the color :

• English:      The blue car is expensive.
• Japanese:    Aoi kuruma wa takai desu.

In the noun form, the color is placed AFTER the noun since it is NOT modifying the noun. 

example 1:                                                                  

ringo wa aka desu.                              ringo wa akai desu.
The apple is red.                                            The apple is red.

The noun in this sentence is “apple / ringo”. and because since it is NOT being modified, we will use the noun form of the color red which is “aka”. We cannot use the i-adjective form of red which is “akai”.

example 2:

booru wa kuro desu.                        booru wa kuroi desu.
The ball is black.                                          The ball is black.

So to recap, the noun form of the color is used in sentences that have the following sentence structures:

• Format 1: noun + verb + [color noun].
  ex:
  The car is [red].
  Kuruma wa [aka] desu.The shirt is [red].
  Sono shatsu wa aka desu.Apples are [red].
  Ringo wa aka desu.

• Format 2:  [color noun] + verb + noun.
  ex:
  [red] is a color.
  aka wa iro desu.[red] suits you.
  aka wa anata ni niaimasu.

• Format 3: Pronoun + verb + [color noun]
  ex:
  It is [red].
  [aka] desu.

The thing I want you to remember from all these examples is that when you are trying to say “Something is some color” or “Color is something” then you must use the noun form of the color, not the adjective form of the color because you are not modifying the noun.

color	i – Adjective form	noun form
red	akai	aka
black	kuroi	kuro

*When you ARE modifying the noun such as “red noun“, for example:
“red shirt”  you use the adjective form!
ex:
Eng:  red shirt
Jap:  akai shatsu

Exceptions to the rules

As always there are always exceptions to the rule in any language!

Exception Kitty does not like exceptions!

We went over how colors in Japanese must be in their adjective form before coming directly before the noun it is modifying/describing. Then I told you that there are two adjective forms, one is called the i-adjective form, and the other is called the no-adjective form.

Next I made the statement that colors are strictly either an i-adjective or a no-adjective when coming before a noun it is modifying…that is mostly true, that is, with the exception of two colors!!

Kiiroi (yellow) and chairoi (brown) are the two colors that can be both an i-adjective or a no-adjective! So be sure to memorize these two.

Color	i – Adjective form	no-adjective form
yellow	kiiroi	kiiro no
examples:	kiiroi hoshi   yellow star	kiiro no hoshi    yellow star
brown	chairoi	chairo no
examples:	chairoi kuma	chairo no kuma
	brown bear	brown bear

As shown in the table above, the colors yellow and brown can be written in their i- adjective form or their no-adjective form when coming before the noun they are modifying. Both are correct.