Colors Before The Noun
“There are not more than five primary colors (blue, yellow, red, white, and black), yet in combination they produce more hues than can ever been seen.” - Unknown
On the last page, you learned (actually, reviewed) what happens when you put the color after the noun. As in, you said something like “A is B.” Now, we’re going to look at colors that are directly preceding a noun. As in: The AB is C (where A is the adjective).
With colors, you have a bunch of weird rules. Two of them you know by now (い and な adjectives). One of them you kind of know (from your work with the の particle) but it’ll be good to go over that in a little more detail anyways. Let’s start with what you do know: い adjective colors.
い and な Adjective Colors
These are the easiest two, since we’ve already been over them quite a bit.
あの くろい くるま が すき です
I like that black car (over there)
この まっくろな くるま は はやい です
This pitch-black car is fast
Just follow the rules from before. い adjectives stay the same. な adjectives get their な added on (as in with まっくろ). All that should sound familiar. Let’s take a look at the “noun” colors that use の.
“の Adjective” Colors
This is a bit new. There are other adjectives besides these particular color adjectives that share the same traits, so consider this as a light introduction to this type of word. Let’s take a look at some examples and break them apart. P.S. Do you remember which color adjectives are “noun color adjectives?”
みどり の みず です
It is green water
むらさき の ふく です
It is purple clothes
ピンク の じてんしゃ です
It is a pink bicycle
Now, it gets a little confusing because dropping the の is often okay as well. It’s probably not “technically” grammatically correct, but it works. Something like みどり みず would still be understood as “green water.” I’d venture to say it sounds more natural / casual, as well. We’re going to practice the above way (with の), but make sure you know that the の will and can be dropped.
There’s a practice sheet you can do to practice these rules (as well as the rules from the last page). Most everything is a lot of what you’ve done before, though there are a couple new things this worksheet will focus on. Basically, the goal of this sheet will be to help you solidify the adjective rules associated with these colors (all rules you know, but practice is good since there’s new things going on as well).