Mandarin: Colours

Colours are really helpful words to know so that you can describe things such as clothes and other objects in Mandarin.

Join Scottish pupils as they give Mandarin a go!

Listen and guess what they are saying before trying yourself.

Tip: This video can be used as an interactive introduction to this topic or as a recap on key vocabulary and phrases already learnt.

Remember!

It doesn't matter if your pronunciation isn't perfect. Try your best and have fun!

There are two different ways to say each colour in Mandarin.

To start, there are colours as nouns in Mandarin, eg ‘the colour red’ or ‘the colour black’.

Click on the colours below to learn what they are in Mandarin:

Here are the same words in a table:

To say what you like and don't like, you can use the phrases:

• 我喜欢Wǒ xǐ huān - I like

• 我不喜欢Wǒ bù xǐ huān - I don’t like

You can use those phrases to talk about the colours you like and don't like, by adding a colour at the end:

Examples:

• 我喜欢紫色Wǒ xǐ huān zǐ sè - I like the colour purple

• 我不喜欢白色Wǒ bù xǐ huān bái sè - I don’t like the colour white

To use colours as adjectives in Mandarin, the particle ‘的de’ is added at the end to express possession.

For example, to describe the colour of on object, eg clothing, as red in Mandarin you would need to use 红色 的hóng sè de, rather than 红色hóng sè. Here are some other examples:

• 棕色的裤子zōng sè de kù zi - brown trousers

• 蓝色的短裙lán sè de duǎn qún - blue skirt

• 绿色的毛衣lǜ sè de máo yī - green jumper

• 橙色的大衣chéng sè de dà yī - orange coat

Take your learning further

Learn about clothes using our guide Mandarin: Clothes and accessories.