Colours and agreement

Colours are adjectives

Colour words describe nouns, so they follow the rules of Adjectives agree and usually follow the noun: they come after the noun and agree with it.

• El coche es rojo.The car is red.
• Tengo una bicicleta roja.I have a red bike.

Group 1: ending in -o, four forms

• Los plátanos son amarillos.Bananas are yellow.
• Las nubes son blancas.The clouds are white.

Group 2: ending in -e or a consonant, two forms

Note that marrón loses its accent in the plural, just like canción → canciones (Making plurals: -s, -es, z → ces).

• Tengo los ojos azules.I have blue eyes.
• Marta tiene dos gatos grises.Marta has two grey cats.
• Son unos zapatos marrones.They're brown shoes.

Group 3: rosa and naranja

Rosa (pink) and naranja (orange) are also the names of a flower and a fruit. They never change for gender: un coche naranja, una camiseta naranja. In the plural, both are correct: camisetas rosa and camisetas rosas.

• La camiseta naranja es de Luis.The orange T-shirt is Luis's.

Asking about colour

Color (colour) is masculine: el color.

• ¿De qué color es la puerta?What colour is the door?
• La puerta es verde.The door is green.

You can also say de color + colour: una falda de color rosa (a pink skirt).

Common mistakes

• una mesa blanco → una mesa blanca. Colours agree like other adjectives.
• el rojo coche → el coche rojo. The colour follows the noun.
• unos coches azuls → azules; los zapatos marrónes → marrones.
• un vestido roso → un vestido rosa. Rosa and naranja have no -o form.
• la color → el color.

Latin America: in many countries brown is often café (unos zapatos café), and pink is often rosado (una camisa rosada). Morado and violeta both mean purple.