Japanese Colors - Basic Color Vocabulary

What you'll learn

• The core Japanese color words written in kanji, hiragana, and katakana
• Noun vs -i adjective forms (for example 赤 aka and 赤い akai)
• Loanword colors like ピンク (pink) and オレンジ (orange)
• Gold, silver, light blue, and lime green vocabulary
• Shade and brightness words: 明るい, 暗い, 濃い, 薄い
• Correct pronunciation from native-speaker audio on every card

Preview the flashcards

A sample of the 20 cards in this set — each with pronunciation and English meaning.

赤/ aka /

Red. Noun form; the -i adjective is 赤い (akai).

青/ ao /

Blue. Noun form; the -i adjective is 青い (aoi).

黄色/ kiiro /

Yellow. Noun form; the -i adjective is 黄色い (kiiroi).

緑/ midori /

Green. Used as a noun; no common -i adjective (often 緑色, midoriiro).

黒/ kuro /

Black. Noun form; the -i adjective is 黒い (kuroi).

白/ shiro /

White. Noun form; the -i adjective is 白い (shiroi).

茶色/ chairo /

Brown. Noun form; the -i adjective is 茶色い (chairoi).

紫/ murasaki /

Purple. Used as a noun; no common -i adjective form.

ピンク/ pinku /

Pink. Katakana loanword; used as a noun.

オレンジ/ orenji /

Orange. Katakana loanword; used as a noun (often オレンジ色).

灰色/ haiiro /

Gray. Used as a noun; グレー (gurē) is also common.

金色/ kin'iro /

Gold (color). Used as a noun.

銀色/ gin'iro /

Silver (color). Used as a noun.

水色/ mizuiro /

Light blue / aqua. Used as a noun.

黄緑/ kimidori /

Yellow-green / lime green. Used as a noun.

+ 5 more cards with full native audio in the complete set.