Russian language is considered the richest in terms of vocabulary in the world, but the English language is not stingy with the multiple names of colors and their shades, some of them even have several synonyms! It is not at all necessary for beginners to learn English to know many shades, but for literacy, the basic colors that are often used in English to describe something and simple word-formation rules are desirable to know.
Interesting colors
Often, when translating some complex shades, we do not even understand the meaning, but they also exist. These can be the most interesting names, up to falu red ['fɑ:lu red], which translates as "the color of the houses of Sweden", or, for example, the shade of papaya whip [pə'paɪə wip] - "papaya whipped cream". Below are the most interesting and memorable shades of the palette, which it is not at all necessary to memorize, but to get acquainted with the translation of colors into English, most likely, it will be quite informative and evena little funny.
A variety of words can denote colors, up to those that, when translated, mean the color of an animal. For example: salmon ['sæmən] (salmon) or camel ['kæməl] (camel). An interesting example is the word dark timberwolf [dɑ:rk 'tɪm.bərwʊlf], which translates exactly as dark timber wolf.
The word burnt is attached to some flowers, which literally translates as "burnt". Thus, there are such shades as burnt orange [bɜ:nt 'ɒrɪnʤ] (burnt orange) or burnt umber [bɜ:nt ʌmbər] – burnt umber.
Often shades are named after some flowers or other plants. A striking example would be the words tomato [tə'mɑ:.təʊ] - tomato, jasmine ['dʒæzmɪn] - jasmine, jonquil ['dʒɒŋk.wɪl] - narcissus, asparagus [ə'spærəgəs] - asparagus.
You can endlessly consider these colors, it's very interesting, but today we will only get acquainted with the basic colors of the English language. This article is not intended for people who specialize in the gamut of shades, who need to study and learn more new ones. This article is for those who have just started their journey of learning English. Word formation, grammar and spelling will also be discussed here.
British and American spellings
Since we are talking about English colors today, it is worth knowing some of the differences in spelling between British and American languages.
Let's start from the beginning. There is a word color (American - color) ['kʌlə], which means both there and there"color" is also pronounced the same, but the spelling is different, so pick one language to learn and stick to it or you'll get confused between the difference one day.
Another striking example is the word gray (American - gray) [ɡreɪ] - gray.
When you understand the difference, we can proceed to the list of English colors. Here are some examples.
Colors in English. List
The most common colors: red - [red] - red; orange - [ˈɔrɪnʤ] - orange; yellow - [ˈjeləu] - yellow; green - [gri: n] - green; blue - [blu:] - blue (some foreigners mean blue); purple - [ˈpə: pl] - purple (magenta); black - [blæk] - black; white - [waɪt] - white.
The most common shades formed from primary colors: gray - [greɪ] - gray; brown - [brown] - brown; pink - [piŋk] - pink; rose - [rəʊz] - pink. Colors formed from the name of precious stones and ores, metals or substances: amethyst - ['æməθɪst] - amethyst; gold - [gəuld] - golden; silver - [ˈsɪlvə] - silver; copper - [ˈkɔpə] - copper; emerald - [ˈemərəld] - emerald; coral - [ˈkɔrəl] - coral; sapphire - ['sæf.aɪər] - sapphire; malachite - ['mæləˌkaɪt] - malachite.
Colors derived from food: chocolate - [ˈʧɔkələt] - chocolate; raspberry - [ˈrɑ: zbərɪ] - raspberry; wheat - [wi: t] - wheat; lime - [laɪm] - lime; olive - ['ɒl.ɪv] - olive; pear - [peər] - pear. Note: sometimes violet is used instead of purple, which means exactly the samepurple.
Shades in English
Quite often, the formation of colors in English occurs by adding any of the following list of adjectives to the main color:
- Dark - [da:k] - dark.
- Bright - [braɪt] - bright.
- Light - [laɪt] - light.
- Pale - [peɪl] - pale.
- Deep - [di:p] - saturated.
- Warm - [wɔ:m] - warm.
- Cool - [ku:l] - cool (cold).
These are the most common adjectives, but there are rarer ones as well.
Let's give an example of several colors formed with the help of these auxiliary words: dark gray - dark gray; pale brown - pale brown; deep purple - dark purple; light green - light green; cool blue - cool blue.
Shades of color can also be formed using a prefix denoting a product (usually fruits and vegetables) of a characteristic color. Let's go straight to the examples, because here everything is already quite simple and clear:
- Raspberry-red - raspberry red.
- Apple-green - apple green.
- Peach-orange - peach-orange.
- Banana-yellow - banana yellow.
- Olive-green - olive green.
There is also a certain group of words to which the word colored [ˈkʌləd] is attributed, which means “colored”. This word can be attributed to many adjectives, but it is most often used in the sense of some object painted in a given color.
For example:
The fence was green-coloured. – The fence has been painted green.
Or:
This house is brown-coloured. – This house is brown.
Two-color formation
Words can be formed by combining two separate, independent colors, and then in most cases a hyphen is put between them. You can give the following examples of flowers in English with translation:
- Blue-green - blue-green.
- Red-violet - red-violet.
- Pink-orange - pink-orange.
- Yellow-blue - yellow-blue.
- Orange-pink - orange-pink.
Suffix -ish and degrees of comparison
The suffix –ish is placed in incomplete color confidence, that is, if one of its shades is meant, the suffixes -ovat- and -evat- are used when translating into Russian. Some good examples:
- Green - greenish - greenish.
- Red - reddish - reddish.
- Yellow - yellowish - yellowish.
- Pink - pinkish - pinkish.
- Orange - orangish - orangeish.
Degrees of comparison (comparative and superlative) for colors are formed in the same way as for ordinary adjectives, that is, if there is one syllable in the word, then the suffixes -er and -est are added to the word at the end, and if there are more one syllable, then more is added in the comparative degree, and the most is added in the superlative degree. Illustrative examples of translating colors into English:
- Red - redder - the reddest (red - redder - reddest).
- Purple - more purple - the most purple (purple - more purple - the most purple).
- Pink - pinker - the pinkest (pink - more pink - the pinkest).
Thus, you can see that you don’t need much knowledge, and the rules are remembered very easily and quickly, because they do not constitute any difficulty for people of almost any age. Learn English, develop and expand your horizons!
