Colours

Knave · 19 Feb 2005

I'm practicing the colours in Japanese, please tell me to which part of speech the following words are related.

Red - 赤 aka
Brown - 茶色 chairo
Orange - だいだい色 daidaiiro
Yellow - 黄色 kiiro
Green - 緑 midori
Blue - 紺 kon
Cyan - 水色 mizuiro
Pink - ピンク pinku
Purple - 紫 murasaki
Black - 黒 kuro
Gray - 灰色 haiiro
White - 白 shiro

Are those nouns? If so, how would one make the adjectives? And also predicate adjectives?

Thanks a lot!

John Lemon · 19 Feb 2005

Knave said:
I'm practicing the colours in Japanese, please tell me to which part of speech the following words are related.

Blue - 紺 kon

Blue in Japanese is usually 青/青い (ao/aoi), "kon" seems to be deep blue/navy blue and I'm not sure if it's too common.

Yes, the words you listed are nouns, but you can turn most of them into adjectives pretty easily. For example: if you add an い to 赤, it becomes 赤い (akai), which is an adjective. Do you know the difference between -na and -i adjectives in Japanese? I can give you the adjective forms of all the colours you listed, but you may find them confusing if you don't know the difference.

Elizabeth · 19 Feb 2005

I've never seen this one either. Plain old orange is simply オレンジ(色)

橙【だいだい】 bitter orange [G][GI]
[ S ]

Predicates take the same form as regular adjectives （赤い）. Also, katakana words are always considered nouns in color-naming, without adjectival equivalents, so there is obviously no dropping or adding of 'i' between the two usages. No buruu (i) for blue or guriin (i) etc.

That shirt is orange (red). Kono shatsu wa orenji (akai).
The color of that shirt is orange (red). Kono shatsu no iro wa orenji (aka).

Knave · 20 Feb 2005

yes

John Lemon,

I have an idea of what the difference between -i adjectives and -na adjectives are. So, how does one tell which colour falls under which category?

I believe that 赤 is an -i adjective and that 茶色 is an -na adjective.
Please help me be able to determine the difference.

Thanks!

Elizabeth · 20 Feb 2005

茶色い is actually an 'i' adjective, some others include :

赤い
青い
黄色い
黒い
白い

Someone please inform me if I've left any out.

Knave · 20 Feb 2005

So if the words above are -i adjectives. Which colours are -na adjectives?

Also, how do you determine the difference?

Thanks!

epigene · 20 Feb 2005

Red - 赤 aka ー＞赤い
Brown - 茶色 chairo －＞茶色い
Orange - だいだい色 daidaiiro
－＞だいだい（色）の・オレンジ色の
("Daidai" was the color in the shade of orange until the real "orange" came to Japan)
Yellow - 黄色 kiiro －＞黄色い
Green - 緑 midori ー＞緑の
Blue - 紺 kon －＞ "kon" is navy blue
ー＞紺の
Blue is 青 (ao), therefore 青い
Cyan - 水色 mizuiro －＞水色の
Pink - ピンク pinku －＞ピンクの
Purple - 紫 murasaki －＞紫（色）の
Black - 黒 kuro －＞黒い
Gray - 灰色 haiiro －＞灰色の・グレーの
White - 白 shiro －＞白い

HTH!

McCrutch67 · 20 Feb 2005

Knave said:
So if the words above are -i adjectives. Which colours are -na adjectives?

Also, how do you determine the difference?

Thanks!

You can not tell the difference between an -i and -na adjective unless you already know which one it is, like gender of nouns in european languages. You just have to memorize it as you go. The only thing I can think of is that -i adjectives end with い. That doesn't help much though because for example きれい is a -na adjective.

Knave · 20 Feb 2005

Aw man!!!

You're serious?! There is no real rule for determining which adjective falls under which category?

Well, thanks everyone for your help!

I appreciate it!

P.S.: Est-ce qu'il y a quelqu'un qui peut parler francais et japonais? Hay alguien que puede hablar espanol y japones?

é&ç

Elizabeth · 21 Feb 2005

Although kirei, kirai and 'kiiroi' (+ other colors?) are the only three 'na' adjectives I can think of that end in hiragana 'i.' All loan words are also in the 'na' category and some like 'chiisai' or 'ookii'ﾂ can go either way. There are a number of past threads on this that might be more useful.

Buntaro · 21 Feb 2005

Is genki also a -na type?

Elizabeth · 21 Feb 2005

Genki is 'na', most Chinese compounds are, but it generally uses kanji which covers the final 'i.' There are a quite a few like that.

Hiroyuki Nagashima · 21 Feb 2005

The example which "NA" is connected to in a part of speech "color"
真っ赤な太陽=MATTUKA NA TAIYOU
真っ白な雪 =MATTUSHIRO NA YUKI
真っ青な海 =MATUUSAO NA UMI
真っ黒な闇 =MATUUKURONA YAMI

There is 「まっ黄」, but a use is unclear
まっ黄なカレー
"NA" is not connected besides a primary color.

epigene · 21 Feb 2005

Knave said:
Aw man!!!

You're serious?! There is no real rule for determining which adjective falls under which category?

Well, thanks everyone for your help!

I appreciate it!

P.S.: Est-ce qu'il y a quelqu'un qui peut parler francais et japonais? Hay alguien que puede hablar espanol y japones?

éç

Why do you need anyone who speaks French or Spanish? I used to be able to translate into Spanish but haven't used Spanish for more than a decade...

Knave · 21 Feb 2005

Answering Epigene's question...

I would like some who speak French or Spanish, because sometimes when things are not similar to English maybe someone could explain to me that it's similar to a rule in French and/or Spanish, but it's not that important. I was just wondering if there is anyone out there with similar interests.

Anyway, speaking about the colour orange. だいだい色 is now obsolete, because the arrival of the orange fruit?

Please help me translate the following sentences...

I'm eating the brown dog.
I'm not eating the brown dog.
I ate the brown dog.
I didn't eat the brown dog.

Thanks a lot!

Glenn · 21 Feb 2005

Knave said:
Aw man!!!

You're serious?! There is no real rule for determining which adjective falls under which category?

There is a rule of sorts. First of all, ignore romaji (that is, just because you see "i" at the end doesn't mean that it ends in い). Second, if it ends in い it is an -i adjective unless: 1) the final い is part of a kanji reading, 2) the final い forms the infinitive (pre-masu) form of a verb. Here are some examples:

きれい - な adjective (or 形容動詞) because the れい is actually the reading of the second kanji: 麗. This word in kanji is 綺麗.

大きい、小さい、青い、鋭い、らしい、珍しい、おかしい - all -i adjectives (or 形容詞). As you can see, all have a final and independent い.

嫌い - な adjective (形容動詞), because it comes from the verb 嫌う, meaning dislike.

In my experience any time you see -ei at the end of a word, it isn't an -i adjective, because it's usually there as the vowel lengthener. The only word that I could think of that ends in い and is a -na adjective is the one that Elizabeth already mentioned: kirai, and I explained that one. So, if it ends in -ai, -oi, -ui, or -ii, it's a safe bet that it's an -i adjective.

Elizabeth · 21 Feb 2005

Knave said:
Answering Epigene's question...

I would like some who speak French or Spanish, because sometimes when things are not similar to English maybe someone could explain to me that it's similar to a rule in French and/or Spanish, but it's not that important. I was just wondering if there is anyone out there with similar interests.

スペイン語やフランス語の主語の人称も単数複数もかなり不規則に変化し、日本語に比べると複雑ですね。:auch: 運良く、日本語にあまり似ていないと思います。

Colours

Knave

先輩

John Lemon

先輩

Elizabeth

先輩

Knave

先輩

Elizabeth

先輩

Knave

先輩

epigene

相変わらず不束者です

McCrutch67

先輩

Knave

先輩

Elizabeth

先輩

Buntaro

運動不足

Elizabeth

先輩

Hiroyuki Nagashima

TAN

epigene

相変わらず不束者です

Knave

先輩

Glenn

一切皆苦

Elizabeth

先輩

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