learn Arabic colors in English 2023 examples & explanations

Colors are surrounding us everywhere. We use them in our daily life and need to use them in so many cases and situations.

Learning colors in Arabic can improve your skills in conversation, writing, reading, and understanding them when you come across any text or video.

The first known discovery of colors goes back to the 13th century when the English Philosopher Roger Bacon formed a theory, saying that a rainbow is produced by a similar process to the passage of light through glass or crystal.

Later, in the 17th century, the English mathematician Sir Isaac Newton presented the color wheel when he discovered the visible spectrum of light, and he noted that white light is composed of a variety of colors.
After a while, he invented the secondary colors by mixing the primary colors.

In this lesson, we are going to talk about Primary and secondary Arabic colors in English, in addition to their attributes.

Primary colors in Arabic :

Let’s start with the primary colors, the original parents of all colors. They can not be produced by mixing any other colors, these are: red, blue, and yellow as you can see in the table (with an example below for each color):

	Arabic	English	Pronunciation
1	أحمر	Red	Ahmar
	الأحمر هو لون الدم.	Red is the color of blood.	Al’ahmar huwa lawnu ddam
2	أزرق	Blue	Azraq
	الأزرق لون بارد وهادئ.	Blue is a cool and calm color.	Al’azraq lawnun barid wa hadi’.
3	أصفر	Yellow	Asfar
	الأصفر هو لون الشمس.	Yellow is the color of the sun.	Al’asfar huwa lawnu ashams.

Secondary colors in Arabic :

Colors like green, orange and purple are secondary, they are produced by mixing other colors. you may watch the below video to know the exact pronunciation of each color check out how they are written and try to pronounce them by looking at the Arabic letters, with reading the example for each color:

	Arabic	English	Pronunciation
1	أخضر	Green	Akhdar
	أحب اللون الأخضر لأنه لون الطبيعة.	I love green because it is the color of nature.	Uhibu allawn al’akhdar li’anahu lawnu altabi’aa.
2	برتقالي	Orange	Bortouqali
	اللون البرتقالي لون دافئ.	Orange is a warm color.	Allawn alburtuqali lawnun dafi’.
3	أرجواني	Purple	Orjwani
	اشتريت فستاناً أرجوانياً.	I bought a purple dress.	Eshtaraytu fstanaan arjwanyaan.
4	أسود	Black	Aswad
	الأسود هو ملك الألوان.	Black is the king of colors.	Al’aswad huwa malk al’alwan.
5	أبيض	White	Abyad
	يتكون الضوء الأبيض من مجموعة من الألوان.	White light consists of a range of colors.	Yatakawanu adaw’’ al’abyad min majmu’aa min al’alwan.
6	وردي	Pink	Wardi
	الفتيات يحبن اللون الوردي.	Girls love pink.	Alfatayatu yuhibna allawna alwardi.
7	بني	Brown	Bunni
	لون عينيه بني.	His eyes are brown.	lawn eaynayhi bunni.
8	أزرق سماوي	Sky blue	Azraq samawi, zarqaa’ samawiya
	أحب أن أرتدي اللون الأزرق السماوي.	I like to wear sky blue.	Uhibbu an artadi allawna al’azraq assamawi.
9	فضي	Silver	Fiddi
	لا أحب المجوهرات باللون الفضّي.	I don’t like silver jewelry.	La uhibu almujawharat billawn alfidi.
10	ذهبي	Golden	Thahabi
	الثياب باللون الذهبي برّاقة.	The golden clothes are shiny.	Athiyab billawn athahabii brraq.

• Each color has a gender: feminine or masculine. We can tell more details about gender in the upcoming lessons.

• You can add the definite article “al” ال to make the color definite, for example: the red الأحمر (Alahmar).
• Colors like red, yellow, green, blue, black and white start with alif أ and usually consist of 4 letters.
• Orange color is called the same as the fruit adding the letter “yaa“ي in the end, to differentiate it from the actual fruit “bortokal” برتقال means orange fruit while “bortuokali” برتقالي is the color.
• Pink is called “wardi”, and comes from “ward” ورد which means “rose” in Arabic.
• Silver “fiddi” comes from silver in Arabic which is “fidda” فضة, adding the letter “yaa”ي in the end.
• Golden “thahabi” comes from gold in Arabic which is “thahab” `ذهب, adding the letter “yaa”ي in the end.
• Brown in Arabic consists of the word “bun” بن which means coffee beans, adding the letter “yaa”ي to refer to the color.
• Sky blue is the same as in English named after the color of the sky, “samawi” means the color of the sky سماء “samaa” which means sky in arabic and we add “we” وي to reffer to the color .

You can watch the following video to learn how to pronounce each color.

More colors in Arabic language :

In the next table we teach you more colors -less used- in Arabic (with an example below each color):

	Arabic	English	Pronunciation
1	أشقر	blond	Ashqar
	كان لون شعرها أشقراً.	Her hair was blond.	Kana lawnu sha’araha ashqaran.
2	عاجي	Ivory	A’aji
	إنها تريد أن تشتري سروالاً من الحرير باللون العاجي.	She wants to buy ivory silk pants.	Innaha turidu an tashtari sirwalaan mina alharir bi allawn al’aji.
3	ازرق كحلي	Navy blue	azraq Kohli
	الازرق الكحلي هو لون اللباس الرسمي في المدرسة.	Navy is the color of the school uniform.	Al-azraq Alkuhli huwa lawnu allibas arasmii fi almadrasa.
4	زيتي	Olive	Zaiti
	اشتريت سيارتين باللون الزيتي	I bought two cars in olive color.	Eshtaraitu sayyaratin billawn azzaiti

Colors attributes :

To tell about colors in detail, we use color attributes. In the following table we mentioned some of them (with an example below each attribute):

	Arabic	English	Pronunciation
1	غامق	Dark, Deep	Ghameq
	الثياب الشتوية عادة ما تكون بلون غامق	Winter clothes are usually dark.	Athiyabu ashatwiatu a’datan ma takunu bilawnen ghameq.
	أحب اللون الأزرق الغامق	I love the dark blue color.	Uhibu allawna al’azraqa alghamiq.
	المفروشات ذو اللون الغامق تعطي شعوراً بالكآبة	Dark-colored furniture gives a sense of depression.	Almafrushat thu allawni alghamiq tu’eti shuwraan bialkaaba.
2	فاتح	Light	Fateh
	هي تفضل تلك الستائر باللون الأصفر الفاتح	She prefers those light yellow curtains.	hiya tufadilu tilka ssatayi’ru billawni l’asfari lfatih.
	الثياب الصيفية عادة ما تكون بلون فاتح.	Summer clothes are usually light in color.	Athiyabu assayfiatu a’datan ma takun bilawnen fatih.
	هم يفضلون اللون الأحمر الفاتح.	They prefer bright red color.	Hum yufadiluna allawna al’ahmara alfatih.
3	فاقع	Bright	Faqe’
	أفضل اللون الهادئ على اللون الفاقع.	I prefer a calm color over a bright one.	Ufaddili allawn shade’ ‘ala alluni al faqe’.
4	مشرق	Shining	Mushreq
	أحب هذه الغرفة بألوانها المشرقة.	I love this room with its bright colors.	Uhibu hathihi alghurfa bi’alwaniha almushriqa.
5	مبهج	Festive	Mubhej
	الأطفال يحبون الألوان المبهجة	Children love shining colors.	Al’atfalu yuhibuwna al’alwana almubhija
6	زاهي	Colorful	Zahi
	أحب رسم لوحات زاهية	I love to draw colorful paintings.	Uhibu rasm lawhaten zahiya
7	عديم اللون	Colorless	‘adima allawn
	الماء يجب أن يكون عديم اللون	The water should be colorless.	Alma’ yajib ‘an yakun ‘adima allawn.

These attributes are usually used only to describe colors, especially فاتح and غامق, so they are related to colors description.

Related Lessons

You can watch the following video to learn how to pronounce each attribute :