Colours in Spanish – Rosetta Stone

Understanding the colours in Spanish is a vital step in mastering conversational Spanish. Colours are obligatory for communication and expression—whether or not you’re complimenting somebody’s eyes, asking your hairstylist about hair dye, or describing the canine you noticed in your morning stroll. 

Prepared so as to add some colour to your Spanish data? Let’s get began.

Listing of colours in Spanish

Spanish is a colourful language, however naming each single colour seen to the attention can be impractical. As an alternative, we’ve narrowed down the listing to fifteen frequent colours in Spanish which can be important to know.

Spanish phrases to explain and classify colours 

Whereas our listing of colours isn’t exhaustive, you’ll be able to simply add extra Spanish colour vocabulary to your repertoire by choosing up a number of adjectives. Understanding how one can speak about completely different colours with quite a lot of tones and shades will simply make your Spanish conversations extra colourful! 

Here’s a listing of helpful Spanish adjectives and phrases you need to use to explain colours in additional element. 

When utilizing these adjectives to change a colour, they observe the identify of the colour. 

For instance: 

• I purchased a pastel blue gown. = Compré un vestido azul pastel.
• The bicycle is neon inexperienced. = La bicicleta es verde fluorescente.
• The first colours are purple, blue, and yellow. = Los colores primarios son el rojo, azul, y amarillo. 

The best way to use Spanish colours in sentences

Earlier than you begin utilizing the colour phrases in your conversations, listed below are a number of vital Spanish grammar guidelines to know. 

1. Sentence construction 

Colours are adjectives after they’re used to explain nouns. Like most adjectives in Spanish, the colour phrases go after the noun that they modify. The right construction for utilizing colour phrases in sentences is: “el/la + (noun) + (colour).” 

Examples: 

• The purple apple = la manzana roja
• The brown canine = el perro marrón

2. Gender and quantity settlement for colours 

In Spanish, adjectives should agree with the gender and variety of the noun they describe. Colours are not any exception! 

Any colour that ends in “o” in Spanish adjustments its ending to match the gender of the noun. 

For instance, blanco adjustments to blanca when describing a female noun. 

• The white cat = el gato blanco 
• The white home = la casa blanca 

However, colors that don’t finish in “o” received’t change their spelling. For instance, gris is used for each masculine and female nouns. 

• The grey cat = el gato gris 
• The grey home = la casa gris 

By default, Spanish colour phrases are singular. To make a colour match plural nouns, add “s” if the phrase ends in a vowel and add “es” if the phrase ends in a consonant. 

Blanco ends in a vowel, so add “s” on the finish to match plural nouns. 

• The white cats = los gatos blancos 
• The white homes = las casas blancas 

To make gris plural, add “es” to the ending. 

• The grey cats = los gatos grises 
• The grey homes = las casas grises

3. Colours with adjectives are all the time masculine and singular

One exception to the earlier rule is while you use colour modifiers in Spanish. When the colour is modified by one other adjective, there isn’t any want to vary the ending to match the gender. It doesn’t matter what the quantity and gender of the noun is, the colour phrases will all the time be masculine and singular. 

Examples: 

• The sunshine orange cat = el gato anaranjado claro 
• The sunshine orange cats = los gatos anaranjado claro 
• The sunshine orange home = la casa anaranjado claro 
• The sunshine orange homes = las casas anaranjado claro 

4. Describe nouns utilizing de colour 

One other technique to describe the colour of a noun is by utilizing the next construction: “ser/estar + de colour + (colour).”  With this sentence construction, you don’t have to fret about matching the colour to the quantity and gender of the noun. You’ll all the time use the masculine singular type to match “el colour”. 

Examples: 

• The automotive is silver. = El coche es de colour plateado. 
• The shirts are black. = Las camisetas son de colour negro. 

5. Colours as nouns are all the time masculine 

When utilizing colour phrases as nouns, they’re all the time masculine and must be preceded by the masculine articles el or los. 

For instance: 

• My favourite colour is gentle pink. = Mi colour favorito es el rosado claro.  
• I desire the colour inexperienced to the colour yellow. = Prefiero el colour verde que el colour amarillo.
• I don’t like heat colours. = No me gustan los colores cálidos.

Colours in Spanish for describing folks

In English, you need to use the phrase “brown” to explain each somebody’s hair and eye colours. In Spanish, nonetheless, there are particular phrases for describing the colours of individuals’s bodily traits. Use the next vocabulary to speak about folks’s hair, pores and skin, and eye colours in Spanish. 

Hair colours in Spanish = Colores de cabello

Eye colours in Spanish = Colores de ojos 

Pores and skin colours in Spanish = Colores de piel 

To precise that somebody’s physique half is a sure colour, use the construction: “tener + (article) + physique half + (colour).” Guarantee that the colour matches the quantity and gender of the noun! 

Examples: 

• I’ve blonde hair. = Tengo el cabello rubio. 
• The canine has inexperienced eyes. = El perro tiene los ojos verdes. 
• My sister has brown pores and skin. = Mi hermana tiene la piel morena.

Paint your world with Spanish 

Now that you’ve a variety of Spanish colour vocabulary below your belt, your conversations are about to be much more colourful! However if you wish to deepen your understanding past simply the fundamentals, Rosetta Stone may also help you’re taking your language expertise to the following degree. 

With Rosetta Stone’s distinctive immersion strategy, you’ll study Spanish naturally and successfully with real-world conversations, sensible subjects, and audio steering from native audio system. Plus, every lesson solely takes 10 minutes and could be accomplished on the go together with the Rosetta Stone app. Go to rosettastone.com to start out studying Spanish right this moment!