Japanese/Vocabulary/Colors

English	Japanese	Reading	Notes
red	赤	あか
orange	橙色	だいだいいろ オレンジ
yellow	黄色	きいろ
green	緑	みどり	グリーン is also commonly used when referencing the color of clothing, shoes or other manufactured items. みどり however, is more often used when describing green that is found in nature (ie. green color found on leaves or grass)
light blue	水色	みずいろ
blue	青	あお	あお originally encompassed both blue and green. It is mainly used for blue in modern times. The green traffic-light is called　青信号(あおしんごう)
purple	紫	むらさき
brown	茶色	ちゃいろ
white	白	しろ
gray	グレー グレイ 灰色 鼠色	はいいろ  ねずみいろ	グレー (also spelled as グレイ) is used more colloquially than ねずみいろ or 灰色 which are traditional Japanese words, meaning mouse-color and ash color, respectively.
black	黒	くろ
pink	ピンク 桃色	ももいろ	ピンク (a translliteration of 'pink') is more commonly used that ももいろ (lit. peach colour) which is a traditional Japanese word.

• - Note that the six basic colors, black, white, red, yellow, brown, and blue are in their noun forms. Adding -い(-i) to the end of these colors will make them adjectives, allowing them to be placed before a noun.

External links

• Japanese color and its pronunciation
• Japanese Color Names Cheat Sheet
• Japanese Traditional Color Names
• Japanese colors with English names