Italian Colors – What are the Colors in Italian and How to Use Them

Imagine a world without colors. Grass wouldn’t be green, a robin’s breast wouldn’t be red, and the sky wouldn’t be blue. You’d be limited to a palette of black, white, and boring shades in between.

That’s why it’s important for you to know the names of the Italian colors. Without them, you won’t be able to say whether you prefer the blue souvenir to the pink one.

What are the words for colors in Italian, and how do you use them in sentences? Let’s find out in this article.

A broad look at Italian colors

How to say “color” in Italian

Let’s start with the simplest element: how do you say “color” in Italian? Il colore. You see? Just add an -e! It’s also very easy to pronounce: eel koh-LOH-reh.

You probably already know that all Italian nouns can be either masculine or feminine, singular or plural. Colore is a singular masculine noun. Its plural form is i colori, the colors, pronounced slightly as ee koh-LOH-ree.

The Italian colors of the rainbow

As you know, there are 7 colors in a rainbow, an arcobaleno (ark-oh-bah-LEH-noh). Let’s see what they are in the table below, along with their Italian counterparts.

Red	Rosso
Orange	Arancione
Yellow	Giallo
Green	Verde
Blue	Blu
Indigo	Indaco
Violet	Violetto

Some of these, namely indaco and violetto, are rarely used in everyday language. We more often use blu or azzurro to refer to shades of blue (blue and light blue, respectively) and viola to describe purple things.

Note: “orange” as a color is arancione. “Orange” as a fruit is arancia. Don’t mix them up!

Let’s now take a look at the other Italian colors you often hear about.

Other common Italian colors

White	Bianco
Black	Nero
Gray	Grigio
Light blue	Azzurro
Purple	Viola
Pink	Rosa
Brown	Marrone

But before we do any examples with these words, we need to take a look at how Italian handles adjectives.

How to talk about Italian colors

We said at the beginning of this article that Italian nouns have two properties: gender (masculine, feminine) and number (singular, plural).

It’s not just nouns, actually. Italian adjectives also have a gender and a number.

These properties cause the ending of a noun or adjective to change, and the properties of the adjective match those of the noun it describes. For example, you can say:

• Il tavolo è nero.
  The table is black.
• La rosa è rossa.
  The rose is red.

We say nero because tavolo is a masculine singular noun, and nero is masculine. However, we say rossa instead of rosso because rosa is a feminine noun and rossa is the feminine form of rosso.

This means that there are four different forms of color adjectives in Italian:

Masculine singular	Feminine singular
Masculine plural	Feminine plural

Adjectives ending in -o

Most adjectives end in -o, such as nero and rosso, black and red. The endings of adjectives, including color adjectives, are as follows:

-o	-a
-i	-e

Let’s practice by completing the tables for nero and rosso, then we’ll finally see some more examples:

Nero	Nera
Neri	Nere

Rosso	Rossa
Rossi	Rosse

Examples with nero:

• Il muro è nero.
  The wall is black.
• La penna è nera.
  The pen is black.
• I muri sono neri.
  The walls are black.
• Le penne sono nere.
  The pens are black.

Examples with rosso:

• Il libro è rosso.
  The book is red.
• La maglietta è rossa.
  The t-shirt is red.
• I libri sono rossi.
  The books are red.
• Le magliette sono rosse.
  The t-shirts are red.

You may have noticed that the endings of the nouns match those of the adjectives:

• muro –> nero
• penna –> nera
• libri –> neri
• magliette –> nere

Adjectives ending in -e

What about marrone, brown? Or verde, green? Italian adjectives ending in -e have only two different forms, singular and plural, because their gender doesn’t change the ending:

-e	-e
-i	-i

Let’s take a look at the table for marrone:

Marrone	Marrone
Marroni	Marroni

Examples:

• Un serpente verde
  A green snake
• Due tavoli marroni
  Two brown tables

Invariable Italian colors

Some Italian colors are irregular. They are invariable, meaning that they have only one form, regardless of whether they describe a masculine, feminine, singular or plural noun:

• Blu (blue)
• Viola (purple)
• Rosa (pink)
• Beige (beige)
• Lilla (lilac)
• Turchese (turquoise)
• Porpora (purple veering to red)

Examples with blu:

• L’uccello è blu.
  The bird is blue.
• Gli uccelli sono blu.
  The birds are blue.
• La lampada è blu.
  The lamp is blue.
• Le lampade sono blu.
  The lamps are blue.

Other examples:

• Capelli rosa
  Pink hair
• Una sciarpa beige
  A beige scarf
• Pantaloni viola
  Purple pants

In these cases, the adjective is the same for singular and plural forms, as well as for masculine and feminine nouns.

Here is a very useful video on how to name Italian colors, including pronunciation and real-life examples!

Position of Italian colors in sentences

Adjectives in Italian usually follow the noun they modify. This is very different from English, where the adjective comes first. Look at these examples:

• Una chiave rotta
  A broken key
• Un tavolo rotondo
  A round table

Rotta chiave and rotondo tavolo sound very unnatural.

Other times, however, the adjective “sounds” better if it goes first:

• Un grosso guaio
  A big trouble
• Un lungo discorso
  A long speech

Color adjectives are most often placed after the noun, but in some cases, they may be placed before it to change style or for emphasis. There is no hard and fast rule. Practice will make it easier to choose where to place a given adjective:

• Un rosso tramonto
  A red sunset

Compound colors

You can use the adjectives chiaro (light) and scuro to describe different shades of a given color. When used with a color, these adjectives do not change form, and the color adjectives themselves remain unchanged (they do not match the gender and number of the noun). Examples:

• Una maglietta verde chiaro
  A light green T-shirt
• Pantaloni blu scuro
  Dark blue pants
• Una giacca rosso scuro
  A dark red jacket

Other times, we can describe Italian colors with a specific noun. For example, we often say:

• Giallo limone
  Lemon yellow
• Verde pistacchio
  Pistachio green
• Rosso pomodoro
  Tomato red
• Bianco panna
  Creamy white
• Blu cielo
  Sky blue
• Rosa confetto
  Sugar pink
• Verde smeraldo
  Emerald green
• Verde acqua
  Aqua green
• Verderame
  Verdigris
• Nerofumo
  Carbon black

Gold and silver colors

To translate “gold” and “silver” in Italian, you can use the adjectives dorato (golden) and argentato (silvery), along with d’oro or color oro for things that are gold, and d’argento or color argento for things that are silver. These are translated as “of gold/silver” and “of gold/silver color” respectively.

Note that dorato and argentato are -o adjectives that match the noun in gender and number.

Examples:

• Aveva dei lunghi capelli dorati.
  She had long golden hair.
• La scatolina era color argento.
  The little box was silver in color.

How to talk about your favorite Italian color

To find out what someone’s favorite color is in Italian, ask:

• Qual è il tuo colore preferito?
  What’s your favorite color?

You can answer with…

• Il mio colore preferito è il… blu/rosa/rosso/ecc.
  My favorite color is … blue/pink/red/etc.

Describing hair

Hair is a bit of an exception because Italian uses a slightly different set of color adjectives to describe it. For example, if someone has brown hair, you will rarely hear them referred to as having capelli marroni, but rather capelli castani:

Brown hair	Capelli castani
Blonde hair	Capelli biondi
White hair	Capelli bianchi
Black hair	Capelli neri
Red hair	Capelli rossi

Another exception is “black-haired” as a single adjective. We use moro, not nero.

Examples:

• Elisa ha i capelli biondi.
  Elisa has blonde hair.
• Mia nonna ha i capelli bianchi.
  My grandma has white hair.
• Luca è moro, mentre suo fratello ha i capelli castani.
  Luca is black-haired, while his brother has brown hair.

Describing eyes

Even eyes have exceptions. For example, we rarely say that people have occhi blu, “blue eyes”, but occhi azzurri, “light blue eyes”:

Brown eyes	Occhi marroni
Black eyes	Occhi neri
Blue eyes	Occhi azzurri
Green eyes	Occhi verdi
Hazel eyes	Occhi nocciola

Examples:

• Enrico ha gli occhi marroni.
  Enrico has brown eyes.
• Silvia e Anna hanno gli occhi verdi.
  Silvia and Anna have green eyes.

Idioms with Italian colors

Ever told a white lie to a friend? Felt blue on a Monday morning after a weekend that just flew by?

There are so many idioms with color in English, and Italian is no exception. What you have to be careful of is that it is very rare for an English idiom to be translated literally in Italian. For example, we translate “feeling blue” as essere giù di morale, “to be down of mood”. No colors are mentioned at all!

Here is a non-exhaustive list of common idioms that use Italian colors. The third column shows the literal translation of the idiom into English.

Numero verde	Toll-free number	“Green number”
Mettere nero su bianco	To put in writing	“To put black on white”
Essere al verde	To be flat broke	“To be at green”
Avere il sangue blu	To have blue blood	“To have blue blood”
Lavorare in nero	To work illegally	“To work in black”
Pagare in nero	To pay under the table	“To pay in black”
Nero come la pece	Black as the ace of spades	“Black as pitch”
Romanzo giallo	Crime novel	“Yellow novel”
Vedere tutto nero	To see everything black	“To see everything black”
Diventare rosso	To blush violently	“To turn red”
Vedere rosso	To be furious	“To see red”
Vedere rosa	To be optimistic	“To see pink”
Di punto in bianco	All of a sudden	“From point in white”
Lasciare in bianco	To leave blank	“To leave in white”
Avere il pollice verde	To have a green thumb	“To have the green thumb”
Principe azzurro	Prince Charming	“Light blue prince”
Essere in rosso	To be in the red	“To be in red”
Passare col rosso	To go through a red light	“To go through with the red”
Nero di seppia	Squid ink	“Black of cuttlefish”

Italian colors: Conclusions

Who knew there was so much to say about colors in Italian? We have seen the most common Italian colors and how to use them. You also learned the most common phrases that use Italian colors.

Now test yourself: look around you, pick a random object, and say out loud what color it is. Maybe even do a little creative exercise and think of another object that has the same color to create a whole new color, like giallo limone and rosso pomodoro!

You can also practice vocabulary on Clozemaster. Its cloze exercises of increasing difficulty are perfect for learning new words and making them stick.

Happy coloring!