Colors As “Nouns”
“Orange is the happiest color.” - Frank Sinatra
Calling them “nouns” feels weird to me, but that’s the best way I can describe it. Basically, this is when colors come after the object/subject of a sentence. As in, when you’re saying “This ____ is ______.” For example:
この みず は みどり です！
This water is green!
あの くるま は あおい です
That car (over there) is blue
Here are the general rules for these things:
い Adjective Colors → Treat them like い adjectives
“Noun” Colors → Treat them like nouns
な Adjective Colors → Treat them like な adjectives
That makes a lot of sense, right? As long as you know which one is which (usually you can at least figure it out via process of elimination) you’ll know how to treat each color.
Now, keep in mind that these rules don’t always hold true. You will see あか instead of あかい or あお instead of あおい. For now, as a beginner, just follow the three rules above. If you see something like this, you’ll still understand it. For now, though, I want to keep things simple, since you have plenty more to learn.
Let’s describe a few more things with colors:
この つくえ は あかい です
This desk is red (i-adj example)
火山 は ちゃいろ です
The volcano is brown (noun example)
切手 は まっくろ です
The stamp is pure black (na-adj example)
For when you use colors like this, you basically just use them the way you learned them on your vocab list. “Blue” is still あおい. “Pure white” is still まっしろ. With the conjugations, you follow the rules associated with them as well.
この つくえ は あかくない です
This desk is not red (neg i-adj example)
火山 は ちゃいろ じゃありません
The volcano is not brown (neg noun example)
切手 は まっくろ でした
The stamp was pure black (past na-adj example)
As long as you know the conjugations from previous lessons, and know the rules associated with each, this shouldn’t be much of a stretch for you. It’s exactly the same as what you’ve been doing up until now, except with new colors vocab thrown in. It just so happens that the colors vocab have some weird rules associated with them.
Let’s look at one more thing before you start practicing this.