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Colours

Colours are among the first words you can actually use in a shop or a description, but in Spanish they have to agree with the noun, which trips up almost every beginner.

Quick answer

Quiero la camisa blanca, no la roja.

I want the white shirt, not the red one. The colour comes after the noun and copies its gender and number.

The words

SpanishEnglish
el colorthe colour
blancowhite
negroblack
rojored
azulblue
verdegreen
amarilloyellow
naranjaorange
rosapink
moradopurple
grisgrey
marrónbrown
clarolight
oscurodark
el tonothe shade

The phrases you will actually say

¿De qué color es tu coche?What colour is your car?
Quiero la camisa blanca, no la roja.I want the white shirt, not the red one.
Me gustan más los tonos oscuros.I prefer darker shades.
Las paredes son azul claro.The walls are light blue.
¿Lo tiene en verde?Do you have it in green?

Worth knowing

Colours ending in -o change with the noun: un coche rojo, una casa roja, unos zapatos rojos. Colours ending in -e or a consonant only change in the plural: verde / verdes, azul / azules, gris / grises. Two everyday words behave oddly because they are really nouns: naranja and rosa normally stay unchanged, so careful speakers say unas camisas rosa, although you will hear rosas constantly in the street. The second trap is that a two-word shade freezes the whole phrase: it is unos ojos verde oscuro, never verdes oscuros. Regional vocabulary differs too, since much of Latin America says café where Spain says marrón, and Mexico uses morado where Spain often says violeta.

Practice

Practise your colours words

0/8 matched — tap a Spanish word, then its translation

Check yourself

How do you say "a red house"?

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