Colours

Do you know how to talk about colours in Irish? Learn some helpful words and phrases and test yourself on others you may already know!

Cén dath is fearr leat?

Is fearr liom … .

Cén dath atá ar … .

Tá dath … air/uirthi.

What is your favourite colour?

My favourite colour is … .

What colour is … ?

It is … .

In Irish, when saying what the colour of something is, you usually say the colour is on something, by using the preposition ar.

Tá dath gorm air.It is blue. (The colour blue is on it.)

Tá dath dearg uirthi.It is red. (The colour red is on it.)

You may have noticed that there are two ways above to say 'on it' in Irish.

In Irish, nouns have genders — they can either be masculine or feminine.

The form of ar to use depends on whether the word is masculine (air) or feminine (uirthi). You can find out a noun's gender by looking in the dictionary.

If you're unsure whether the noun is masculine or feminine, you can always use ar followed by the article (an or na) and the noun. Remember to follow the rules about prepositions and articles when doing this.

Cén dath atá ar an charr?What colour is the car? (What colour is on the car?)

Tá dath buí ar an charr.The car is yellow. (The colour yellow is on the car.)

Learn more about using prepositionsin this guide.