Language/Italian/Vocabulary/Colors

Colors - I colori

Vocabulary

English	Italiano
black	nero/a
blue	blu
brown	marrone
gold	oro
green	verde
grey	grigio/a
orange	arancione
pink	rosa
purple	viola
red	rosso/a
silver	argento
yellow	giallo/a
white	bianco/a

Use

In Italian language, objects have genders i.e either feminine or masculine. As we know, colors are adjectives (words that describe something). Adjectives in Italian MUST agree with the GENDER and NUMBER of the noun. You'll notice from the list of colors above that for colors that end in "o" there is also an option for an ending in "a" and this is dependent on the gender.

Please Note: A few examples where the adjective agrees with number:

1. Black cats (masculine) - Gatti neri OR (feminine) Gatte nere
2. The pens are yellow - Le penne sono gialle
3. Our grey spoons - i nostri cucchiai grigi

A black cat

This sentence can be written in two different ways in Italian, depending on the gender of the cat (our noun).

1. A black cat - Un gatto nero (In this case, our cat is masculine hence "nero")

1. A black cat - Una gatta nera (In this case, the cat is female hence "nera")

The pen is yellow

A pen in Italian is feminine i.e "Penna". Therefore, its adjective which is the color "yellow" MUST agree with our noun "pen" which is feminine.

Hence:

The pen is yellow - La penna è gialla

My grey spoon

Spoon in Italian is masculine i.e "cucchiaio". Hence, the adjective must agree with the gender of the noun "spoon" and take a masculine form.

My grey spoon - Il mio cucchiaio grigio