Green, red, orange, blue, purple, etc. What are these? Yes, exactly! They are colors and we use them all the time to describe how something looks.
Without colors, life would be very dull. Color adds excitement to things and easily brighten up any boring day. I always like adding color to things, and, personally speaking, my favorite color is green. And sometimes purple. But I think all colors are special and beautiful in their own unique way.
This is a rather simple [but extremely useful] post since it contains all the main colors and a bunch of extras in order to make sure you’ve correctly described the color of something in Russian.
Before we start, color in Russian is цвет and in the plural it’s цвета. Yes, an irregular plural.
| белый | white |
| чёрный | black |
| коричневый | brown |
| розавый | pink |
| красный | red |
| оранжевый | orange |
| фиолетовый | purple |
| жёлтый | yellow |
| зелёный | green |
| серый | grey |
| голубой | light blue |
| синий | dark blue |
| Careful! The adjective синий is a soft adjective. That means that its endings will be soft – they will differ from those of the other colors. |
Additional notes on color usage and history:
| 1. Did you notice that Russian makes a distinction between shades of blue? They have a separate color light blue and dark blue. They even say that because of this, Russian speakers can differentiate shades of blue better than speakers of other languages. Whether this is true or not, it’s fascinating. |
| 2. In addition to green, зелёный also carries the meaning of young, inexperienced. And it can be used to refer to those who support the environment. |
| 3. Careful! In addition to light blue, голубой colloquially carries the meaning of homosexual. Although Russia is changing, it’s still extremely conservative in terms of relationships, meaning homosexuality is not as widely accepted as in the United States. I’m adding this to warn anyone identifying as something other than heterosexual to exercise caution with this matter. |
| 4. While now used to mean red, красный once carried the meaning of beautiful. In modern Russian, красивый is used to mean beautiful. Do you see how similar these adjectives are? |
| 5. Careful! In addition to pink, розовый colloquially carries the meaning of lesbian. |
| 6. The adjectives белый and чёрный can also be used to describe race. However, I wouldn’t recommend using them that way, especially the latter of the two. |
| 7. Want to remember the order of the colors of the rainbow? The Russians created a useful mnemonic device: Каждый охотник желает знать, где фазан. [Every hunter wishes to know where the pheasant is.] Thus, red, orange, green, blue and purple. |
| Colors describe, thus rendering them adjectives. They function just like adjectives. They agree and decline as needed. ex. красный дом, красная книга, красное лицо, красные книги |
To ask someone what their favorite color is, the following question and response should prove useful:
| Какой у Вас/тебя любимый цвет? What is your favorite color? |
| Мой любимый цвет зелёный. My favorite color is green. |
To ask what color something is, one uses the following phrase:
| Какого цвета Ваша/твоя машина? What color is your car? |
| Моя машина белого цвета. or, but less common: Моя машина белая. My car is white. |
Some examples utilizing color words.
| Они красят двери и окна в белый цвет. They are painting the doors and windows white. |
| На балу все мужчины были в чёрных костюмах. All the men were wearing black suits at the ball. |
| Среди красного и розового цветов мне больше нравится красный. Between red and pink, I prefer red. [lit. like red more] |
| Мне трудно носить розовую одежду. It’s hard for me to wear pink clothing. |
Let’s learn some additional colors to benefit our ability to nuance things.
| тёмный | dark |
| яркий | bright |
| светлый | clear |
| многоцветный | multicolored |
| цветной | colorful |
| чёрно-белый | black and white |
| золотистый | golden |
| серебряный | silver |
| бледный | pale |
| бежевый | beige |
| неоновый | neon |
| каштановый | chestnut-colored |
| карий | hazel |
| седой | gray [from aging] |
| бирюзовый | turquoise |
| The adjective карий is also soft. |
And you can create nuanced color forms [shades, mixed colors] by doing the following – remove the adjectival ending, replace it with о, then bind it with another color [full form] via a hyphen.
| тёмно-зелёный | dark green |
| ярко-зелёный | bright green |
| светло-зелёный | light green |
| бледно-зелёный | pale green |
| неоново-зелёный | neon green |
| красно-оранжевый | red orange |
| жёлто-оранжевый | yellow orange |
What about –ish? If something is greenish, reddish, pinkish? Well, it’s pretty easy to express it in Russian.
| розоватый | pinkish |
| зелёноватый | greenish |
| красноватый | reddish |
| синеватый | dark bluish |
| жёлтоватый | yellowish |
| Describing someone’s appearance. |
A helpful guide for hair color:
| светлые волосы | light hair [blonde] |
| тёмные волосы | dark hair [brunette] |
| каштановые волосы | brown hair |
| рыжие волосы | red hair [natural] |
| русые волосы | light brown hair |
| If someone’s hair is artificially colored red, use красные волосы. |
And eye color:
| карие глаза | brown eyes |
| голубые глаза | blue eyes |
| зелёные глаза | green eyes |
Well, I think that’s all for today’s post.
My Slavic Studies 