Imagine, stretched out before you, row upon row of gelato options. You reach the front of the line and wish to make your selection, but you have trouble indicating which flavor you want. The labels are hard to see, and pointing doesn’t seem to be working.
Think how much easier it could be if you just knew the words to say that you wanted “the yellow one.” This may sound like a silly example, but learning the colors in Italian can come in handy in many situations.
Lastly, the color word has to agree with the gender of the noun, so using yellow in Italian with a feminine noun like macchina, or “car,” it would be described as la macchina gialla instead of la macchina giallo. With that in mind, here are some colors in Italian to get you started before you move on to learning more of the language!
The Basic Colors In Italian
the color — il colore
red — rosso
orange — arancione
yellow — giallo
green — verde
blue — blu
light blue — azzurro
dark blue — blu scuro
purple — viola
pink — rosa
brown — marrone
black — nero
white — bianco
light — chiaro
dark — scuro
Italian Color Conjugations
The colors above are all in their singular, masculine form, which is generally how they are seen outside of the context of a sentence. But depending on the noun that the color is describing, some of the colors will change. Red in Italian, for example, is rosso in singular, masculine; rossa for singular, feminine; rossi for masculine, plural; and rosse for feminine plural.
Most of the colors that end in -o follow a similar pattern, while some (like blu and arancione) don’t change at all. Here’s a quick chart you can refer to when you’re learning the colors.
Italian Colors In The Singular Form
| Color | Masculine Singular | Feminine Singular |
|---|---|---|
| red | rosso | rossa |
| blue | blu | blu |
| green | verde | verde |
| yellow | giallo | gialla |
| black | nero | nera |
| white | bianco | bianca |
| orange | arancione | arancione |
| purple | viola | viola |
| pink | rosa | rosa |
| gray | grigio | grigia |
| brown | marrone | marrone |
Italian Colors In The Plural Form
| Color | Masculine Plural | Feminine Plural |
|---|---|---|
| red | rossi | rosse |
| blue | blu | blu |
| green | verdi | verdi |
| yellow | gialli | gialle |
| black | neri | nere |
| white | bianchi | bianche |
| orange | arancioni | arancioni |
| purple | viola | viola |
| pink | rosa | rosa |
| gray | grigi | grigie |
| brown | marroni | marroni |
Using Italian Colors In A Sentence
In Italian, the color word often comes after the noun that it is describing. So “the red cat” is il gatto rosso. If you want to say “the light red cat,” the word for light comes at the end, so il gatto rosso chiaro. (One exception to that is light blue, which is just azzurro.) Here are a few more examples of using colors in a sentence.
| Italian | English |
|---|---|
| La macchina è rossa. | The car is red. |
| Il cielo è blu. | The sky is blue. |
| La foglia è verde. | The leaf is green. |
| I fiori bianchi | The white flowers |
| La zucca è arancione. | The pumpkin is orange. |
| Il vestito è viola. | The dress is purple. |
| La rosa è rosa. | The rose is pink. |
| Le foglie verdi | The green leaves |
| La palla blu | The blue ball |
| I gatti neri | The black cats |
| I libri gialli | The yellow books |
Now that you’ve got your colors in order, maybe it’s time to try signing up for a Babbel Live course to keep going with your Italian skills. Or if you prefer a self-study experience, click below and get started right away with a free lesson!