Italian is already a colourful language, so why not improve your vocabulary by learning the colours in Italian?
Here's our complete guide to Italian colours.
| English | Italian | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| Red | Rosso | ROS-so |
| Orange | Arancione | ah-ran-CHO-neh |
| Yellow | Giallo | JAH-lo |
| Green | Verde | VER-deh |
| Blue | Blu | BLOO |
| Purple | Viola | VEE-oh-la |
| Pink | Rosa | ROH-sa |
| Brown | Marrone | ma-ROH-neh |
| Grey | Grigio | GREE-jo |
| Black | Nero | NEH-ro |
| White | Bianco | BYAHN-ko |
Why You Should Learn the Colours in Italian
Learning the colours may seem easy or beneath you. Still, every language learner can improve their level by learning the colours.
Mastering Italian colours opens up a world of practical applications. You can use them to describe objects, identify specific items in shops, cafés, restaurants, and even enhance your storytelling by sprinkling informative adjectives throughout stories.
For English speakers, in many ways, Italian is a learner-friendly language when it comes to colours. Unlike many other languages, where certain colours and concepts differ from English, Italian colours align quite nicely with English colours.
For example, in Russian, there are two main types of blue that English speakers typically call blue. Not only does this make Russian native speakers better and quicker at identifying blue, but it's more work for English speakers learning the language as you need to learn a new concept for blue.
In Mandarin Chinese, however, the opposite phenomenon occurs. There's a word that refers explicitly to what English speakers would distinguish as blue or green. There are words for blue and green in Mandarin Chinese, but historically, this distinction was made less often.
Don't worry, dear Italian learner, as the colours in Italian are not a complex puzzle. They align quite nicely with colours in English, making it a straightforward task to learn them. This simplicity should boost your confidence in mastering Italian colours.
However, there is one thing to deal with first...
How Grammatical Gender Affects Colours in Italian
Italian, like many other languages worldwide, uses grammatical gender. This basically means that all nouns in the Italian language belong to one of two groups: masculine or feminine.
This has nothing to do with the masculinity or femininity of any nouns but is rather arbitrary, with some nouns belonging to one group and some belonging to the other.
For anyone learning to speak Italian, this does mean something when it comes to using colours, as adjectives in the language have to "agree" with the noun.
The word for colour changes according to the object it describes and what class of nouns that object belongs to.
This modification of the adjective also occurs according to the number of the object, with different versions for singular objects and plural objects. It can also help to learn numbers in Italian.
This can give you up to four possible variations for each colour you learn, with singular and plural versions in both the masculine and feminine forms.
Let's take the Italian word "azzurro," which means blue. This refers to a specific type of blue, but we have enough on our plate without having to dive into the cultural nuance of this particular blue.
There are four ways you could see this in Italian:
- Masculine singular: "Il cielo è azzurro." (The sky is blue.)
- Feminine singular: "La casa è azzurra." (The house is blue.)
- Masculine plural: "I cieli sono azzurri." (The skies are blue.)
- Feminine plural: "Le case sono azzurre." (The houses are blue.)
For all the colours that follow these rules (there are exceptions), this is how the end of the word changes:
- Masculine singular: -o
- Feminine singular: -a
- Masculine plural: -i
- Feminine plural: -e
This rule will apply for most colours written down that end in -o.
Colours like “blu” (another word for a certain kind of blue), “viola” (purple), and “rosa” (pink) don't change at all.
The colour green (verde), however, remains “verde” in both singular forms and becomes “verdi” in both plural forms. This is true of other colours that end in -e, too.
If this is too easy for you, you could always try and tackle the most common verbs in Italian.
Basic Colours in Italian
So now that you have a basic understanding of how colours work in Italian, here are some of the fundamental colours you could use in everyday conversations with an essential guide to their pronunciation.
Remember that all pronunciations are approximate for English speakers. To properly pronounce these words, you should listen to examples and learn how letters in the Italian alphabet are pronounced.
| English | Italian | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| Red | Rosso | ROS-so |
| Orange | Arancione | ah-ran-CHO-neh |
| Yellow | Giallo | JAH-lo |
| Green | Verde | VER-deh |
| Blue | Blu | BLOO |
| Purple | Viola | VEE-oh-la |
| Pink | Rosa | ROH-sa |
| Brown | Marrone | ma-ROH-neh |
| Grey | Grigio | GREE-jo |
| Black | Nero | NEH-ro |
| White | Bianco | BYAHN-ko |
These colours will certainly do the job in most situations and provide an excellent starting point for anyone learning the language. With these colours, you should be able to at least point out specific objects, specify what you'd like in a shop, etc.
Modifying Colours in Italian
So what do you do if two things are the same colour? You could always talk about the shade, provided they aren't exactly the same colour.
It would help if you had words for "light" and "dark" for this. In Italian, you use the following words:
- Light – chiaro
- Dark – scuro
These adjectives go after the colour and would look like “rosso scuro” (dark red) or “verde chiaro” for example.
Fancier Colours in Italian
The basic colours we've listed will get you through most situations, but if you want to get more creative, here are plenty of colours you could use to be more descriptive when using your Italian.
Again, remember that the pronunciation guide is approximate for English speakers. Listen to examples and study Italian to better understand exactly how these colours should be pronounced.
| English | Italian | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| Beige | Beige | BEH-zhe |
| Brick | Mattone | ma-TTOH-neh |
| Champagne | Champagne | shahm-PAHN-yeh |
| Coral | Corallo | koh-RAH-lo |
| Crimson | Cremisi | kreh-MEE-zee |
| Cyan | Ciano | CHAH-no |
| Golden | Dorato | doh-RAH-to |
| Indigo | Indaco | een-DAH-ko |
| Ivory | Avorio | ah-VOH-ryo |
| Lavender | Lavanda | lah-VAN-dah |
| Magenta | Magenta | mah-JEN-tah |
| Maroon | Bordeaux | bor-DEH |
| Mauve | Malva | MAHL-vah |
| Olive | Oliva | oh-LEE-vah |
| Peach | Pesca | PEHS-kah |
| Plum | Prugna | PROO-nya |
| Silver | Argento | ar-JEN-to |
| Tan | Marrone chiaro | ma-ROH-neh KYAH-ro |
| Turquoise | Turchese | toor-KEH-zeh |
Things to Remember When Using Colours in Italian
In addition to the rules of grammatical gender that are ever-present in Italian when using any adjectives, you should also be aware of some other rules when using colours in Italian.
Colours as Nouns in Italian
When referring to a colour itself, as in "the colour red", for example, the noun is always masculine singular.
Learning the Italian for different family members can help with practising different versions of grammatical gender.
Idiomatic Expressions with Colours
In Italian, there are plenty of idiomatic expressions that refer to colours. They have expressions like “vedere tutto rosa” (which literally means “to see everything pink”) and “essere al verde” (to literally “to be in the green”).
One means to be broke, whereas another means to see everything positively. We'll let you work out which one is which.
Cultural Significance of Colours in Italian
Language and culture are completely inseparable. One affects the other and vice versa. This is no different in Italian, so be aware that colours have cultural associations.
There are many overlaps with English-speaking culture here, but it can help to be aware of them.
- Green represents nature, fertility, and growth. It's also often associated with hope and optimism.
- White represents purity and is common at weddings, baptisms, and other ceremonies in Italy.
- Red is typically symbolic of passion, love, desire, and romance. It's also known for being the colour of revolutionary movements.
Those are just three colours important to Italians for apparent reasons, but blue (azzurro) has a lot of cultural and sporting significance, too!
You can better understand the culture by learning the days and months in Italian.
Improve Your Italian with the Help of a Private Tutor
One of the best ways to improve your Italian is to move to the country and immerse yourself in the culture and language. However, not everybody can move to another country at any time, so the second best way to learn a language is with a private tutor.
Private Italian tutors can offer many opportunities to practice using your new language, as well as activities and sessions tailored to the learner and what they want to learn.
There are plenty of talented and experienced private tutors on the Superprof website, and you can find them simply by searching "Italian."
Once you have the results of local or online tutors, you can start browsing their profiles, find out more about precisely what they teach, read reviews left by their other students, and see how much they charge per session.
Most tutors on the site offer the first session for free, so students can try different tutors before finding the right one. After all, you mightn't completely gel with a tutor that looks good on paper otherwise. Since you'll likely be talking to them a lot, particularly in Italian, it's crucial that you feel comfortable talking to them.
While face-to-face tutoring is usually the most cost-effective, it's also the most expensive per hour. Since online tutors don't have to travel and can schedule more sessions with their students each week, they're typically cheaper than their face-to-face counterparts.
You could always look for group tutoring if you're on a tight budget. Not only will this give you opportunities to practise your Italian with other learners, but you'll also save some money in the process.
Enjoyed this article? Leave a rating!
Loading...
