Regarding colors in japanese...
- Thread starter TheH4mm3r
- Start date
- 22 Feb 2008
- 18,266
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黄色いTシャツ is OK, but 赤のシャツ/青のシャツ sounds a bit strange.
青い is usually used to describe the colors of things, whereas 青の shows that the modified noun has a relation with 青. For instance, 青の組 means a group named "blue", and doesn't always mean the group is actually blue color.
赤, 黒, 白, 青 are special in Japanese colors. They have adjective forms 赤い, 黒い, 白い, 青い, and 赤の, 黒の, 白の, 青の can have different nuances from the adjective forms. There were only these four colors names in ancient Japanese. 赤 and 黒 meant bright color and dark color, respectively. (あかるい and くらい have the common origin to them.) 白 meant natural, and 青 covered the other colors than the three.
黄色 and 茶色 are the exceptions. They also have adjective forms 黄色い and 茶色い, but these are relatively new words. So, 黄色の and 茶色の are used as the same meaning to 黄色い and 茶色い naturally.
青い is usually used to describe the colors of things, whereas 青の shows that the modified noun has a relation with 青. For instance, 青の組 means a group named "blue", and doesn't always mean the group is actually blue color.
赤, 黒, 白, 青 are special in Japanese colors. They have adjective forms 赤い, 黒い, 白い, 青い, and 赤の, 黒の, 白の, 青の can have different nuances from the adjective forms. There were only these four colors names in ancient Japanese. 赤 and 黒 meant bright color and dark color, respectively. (あかるい and くらい have the common origin to them.) 白 meant natural, and 青 covered the other colors than the three.
黄色 and 茶色 are the exceptions. They also have adjective forms 黄色い and 茶色い, but these are relatively new words. So, 黄色の and 茶色の are used as the same meaning to 黄色い and 茶色い naturally.
