Mandarin: Colours

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

Colours as nouns in Mandarin

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

These can be used in Mandarin alongside:

• 我喜欢Wǒ xǐ huān - I like

• 我不喜欢Wǒ bù xǐ huān - I don’t like

For example:

• 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

Colours as adjectives in Mandarin

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:

• 这是一件白色的衬衫Zhè shì yī jiàn bái sè de chèn shān - This is a white shirt

• 我有一顶绿色的帽子Wǒ yǒu yì dǐng lǜ sè de mào zi - I have a green hat