Learn Japanese: Colors in Japanese GenkiJapan.net

[Sandy6789]

Am I the only one who thinks green and purple kanji look ridiculously complicated?

[SilverLining96]

@Sandy6789 It's great if you know Chinese. They're virtually the same except with 3 less strokes on green and a slight difference on purple.

And yes, they do. Took me a while to memorize the Chinese versions

[quaritine22]

thx you guys i have a japanese gf now i can speak to her better cause of your site

[jaimie7770]

my favorite colors are: murasaki, pinku, & kuro and LOL they r all in a row watch from 0:30-0:48 lol

[Annihitate]

i'm so glad that i've found your site it helps me alot. :D

[RainbowZebra99]

Hey, I thought you were British? So why'd you write color? I'm British too :D

[PerkySyd]

Hmmmm, I have a question! XD Why is "blue" ao and not aoi? Or is it both? Ahahaha, I just don't know! ^^;

[42jemini]

@PerkySyd It is aoi if it has the "i" character after the ao kanji. (sorry, I don't have the software to type the hiragana) ao is normally followed by the "i" character when used in a sentence, but when you just say blue by it self, it is ao.

[Nazutsuki]

I'm so going to buy your items when I can, it's just way too cool!

[SportyKlutz]

I'm a quarter Japanese and was never really taught how to speak Japanese. Thanks to these lessons, I can communicate with some of my family a lot better. ARIGATO!

[UNR3S7]

Why is everything in katakana? I thought that most things were in hiragana.

[DetectiveConan150]

@UNR3S7 Because they describe things from foreign countries. Forexample sandwich is written in katakana because it comes from Britain. Hiragana is for Japanese words.

[TheFlyingFlea1]

Does that mean that Gin from bleach is called silver?

[shugoshugocha35]

Richard, thank you so much for these lessons. They're really teaching me a lot :) Although I still can't really understand most of the things you say in your Japanese videos, I can understand a lot more then I used to! Also, unlike most other Japanese learning lessons, you teach us how to say things in a fun, "genki" way. (Although I still use some websites to learn the kanji, though I know most of all the katakana and hiragana). Thank you :)

[fawful52]

My favourite colour is murasaki!

[FlyingSophisa]

@Anonymous32User

If you favorite color was pink, say Pinku ga suki desu

suki=like (daisuki=love)

It sounds like ski

Donnа iro ga suki has the phrase many times.

[PathogenProductions]

@Anonymous32User 僕の一番好きな色は．．．　（Boku/ Watashi no ichiban sukina iro wa...) 

[Justin13L]

Why does pink and orange not have kanji? Only katakana?

[rawrxitsxrachael]

ahh on Bleach Gin's hair is greyish/white so that one will be easy to remember. :)

[deoxy999]

@Anonymous32User 私の好きな色は ... です。Replace the dots with the color.

[isthatanidiot]

Watching this made me think of all the anime I watch. Captain "Kuro", "Shiro"-hige, "Gin"tama. The list goes on and on.

[wannabejapanesechica]

OMG THEY SAID GIN!!! <3<3<3

[onolly13]

all i am ganna say is that I LOVE THAT MUSIC

[Dustbunny1twenty]

@Anonymous32User I think it would be "Watashi no ichiban suki iro wa..." but I'm not quite sure.

[LuckyStar334]

omg u even have a color video this is so awesome

[DarkSoulBR1]

Very good, this videos help a lot!

[Mangobitz]

arigato nano desu !

[moosiesama]

K-K-K-KURO

[FarEien18]

must we like add one "i" after we said the colours??? bcos when i watch dramas and listen to japanese said the colour names, theres "i" behind them... o.O ...

[LaurenShirogane]

weird, part of my user name means white :DD

[ShiroHero13]

Omg if u watch Bleach and Naruto u'd understand this:

Gin from Bleach is silver

Toshiro is White

Akatsuki means red sun

ichigo Kurosaki from bleach is black xD

[KagutsuchiNR]

K-k-k-kuro!

[MrFrik3]

isn't 'dou' 'HOW IS IT'? why is it 'bronze'?

[4teensanime]

murasaki, chairo, and dou were the only ones i didnt know... thanks :)

[1dlesniper]

please disregard my earlier comment, the question is answered quite well farther down the comments list.

Once again, thank you.

[gardengalsu]

thank you for this lesson ... very well done and easy to understand. @DirEnGay: if you want to hear "momoiro" being used come to Hawaii! our Japanese usage tends to be old fashioned ... we tend to use words from when our families migrated from old Japan. and the word for "color" is simply "iro".

[YuukiChanxx]

kawaii.. voice!

[dwl82iw]

Thanks very much for this, it's really handy to have for beginners in Japanese. I've been playing this video three or four times over the last three days without making any direct effort to learn the colours, but rather just let it come to me organically, and today I've been able to recite them all correctly, so it shows it must be working. Domo arigato gozaimasu!

[sailorcharlene]

what is grey in japanese

[GenkiJapanNet]

@sailorcharlene 灰色 - hai iro - "ash colour", or sometimes ねずみ色　- nezumi iro - "mouse colour" - for a slightly lighter grey.

[aliedesuacido]

@GenkiJapanNet is saying the diiference between the greys neccesary? i mean do people really look if u have the right shade down?

[sailorcharlene]

i love japanese. I think it because i grow with mangas. I really wanna learn japanese

[Zazuthehornbill]

ゲンキ - ジャパン,ドットゥ - ネトゥ! ^-^

[BlueSkiesRidingGirl]

Hahaha! I went downstairs to my mom yelling "Learning is fun momma! Learning is FUN!" she looked at me like O_e now she stares at me when i watch these XD

[PsychoGhoul]

your videos are amazing! i already know the colours, the weather and to ask "where are you from?" xD. thank you!!!

[theeyesofanother]

Hello! Just wanted to tell you that I am learning so quick with the sings you posted on you tube! Its amazing that I can sing along after only watching a video a couple times. Thanks =D

[0XHimeka]

thanks for uploading, i wanted to know how to say colours in japanese. :)

[StyliedbyHaylie]

how do you say color in japanese

[coolgirlerlynful]

wow...i'm learning!!!

[Al1HopeisGone]

I love these lessons. They're fun, and I'm learning fast!

[MusicMagic8]

Does anyone know how to say Lavender in Japanese?

[Kyoto59]

To MusicMagic:　Lavender in japanese is ラベンダー (rabendaa).

Unfortunately it's another loan word. =P

[Kiralover2]

waw coool thanks alot ^_^

[VampLove777]

These are the best!!!!!!

[windvoicevox]

I am not English expert, but...

"青い魚"(aoi sakana: bule fish(es)).

"青い空"(aoi sora: bule sky).

[ReniFrog]

wait so.. dou means bronze.. but doesnt it also mean 'how is it?' ? D: i am now confuzzled..

[klakkid]

Kore wa omoshiroi desu!

I'm learning incredibly quickly! :D

[drew4614]

It's right there

Gin = Silver

[kittycatdude]

SO AWESOME!

[0101ys]

colorless→mushoku むしょく 無色

transparency→toumei とうめい 透明

yellowish green→kimidori きみどり 黄緑

light blue;sky blue→mizuiro みずいろ 水色

ultramarine→gunjyouiro ぐんじょういろ 群青色

navy blue→kon こん 紺

[AbyssalShinigami]

oh. so blue isnt "aoi" and black isn't "kuroi". Have I been wrong all this time? O.O

[kiminokami]

the "i" at the end is a suffix to make it an adjective. blue is "ao," but a blue mouse is "aoi nezumi."

[LakesideParkFC]

This video explains color names = nouns.

Aoi and Kuroi with "-i" are adjectives. Akai and Shiroi are adjectives too.

So you are right.

[t3rcx]

I'm no expert, but I think the "i" form is the adjective form. So if you said "blue sky" you would use "aoi sora" for blue describing sky, but talking about the color blue as a noun uses "ao".

[testofhp]

Perfect, you got it down :)

[aprilmandy]

Yay! I have a Japanese class at school! I feel lucky.

[pinkit400]

this is amzing i learned so much

[SpongebobL0VER]

:)

I now know my 3 favorite colors in Japanese!

Midori

Pinku

Au

[DirEnGay]

I still use momoiro for pink and daidaiiro for orange.

Can't break the habit.

[GenkiJapanNet]

Could I ask, is that what you learnt in school?

[DirEnGay]

Hmm my comments sometimes don't show for myself so if you mean the momoiro (which really means peach colour), daidaiiro and haiiro. I just learned a lot of Japanese from watching films and stuff, I never got taught Japanese in school.

I do have a College teacher though but she taught me to use orenji, pinku and gure as it's more common now. I realise that even though they are more common they're still wasei-eigo, I usually pick things up from historical moves rather than pop culture ones.

[GenkiJapanNet]

Ah fair enough! I bow down to the old samurai movies!

[jamesxf18]

scarva

[SuperShmuck]

this seriously makes me want to think about a new favorite color!!!

[youen2]

you can also say momoiro for pink

[GenkiJapanNet]

Yeah, again I don't think I've heard people say momo iro in Japan. Everything is ピンク　though!!!

[XxitasasuxX]

arigatou ^~^

[UzumakiRasengan1]

Thanks!! ^^

Orenji

[jufmi9]

aka

[LightMichiru]

murasaki :D

no no...

kuro >:D

[FakeFriendship]

midori!!

[inubaby67]

midori!!!

[kn3000gtsl]

My thoughts exactly! lol

[esagatitacaramelita]

PINKU :D

[tomsonuy]

how come that colors can be written with single alphabet???

for example: midori is only with one alphabet!!! I dont get it damnnnn explain it please

[shootingstars5678]

those are called kanji. technically, japanese has three writing scripts. hiragana is kinda like our alphabet, where each character is one syllabel. katakana is the script Japanese people use when they're trying to mimic the sound of western words. (like pinku!) and kanji are generally more complex because they came from China, and each kanji character stands for something. so unlike hiragana, you can have only a single kanji and form one word, like midori. hope that helps

[IchiruKiriyu]

Only 4 japanese words mean a single alphabet. the rest are either two or more alphabets.

[ChungFat4eva]

its not a kana (hiragana and katakana) symbol is a kanji, one of the many chinese characters used in Japanese. colors that are in katakana like pinku are borrowed from English so you can't use kanji, but colors such as kuro are strictly Japanese so they have a kanji

[EverLastingJunior]

whats grey??

[KryztalKitsu]

Grey is haiiro.  :)

[KryztalKitsu]

haiiro

[kumichan90]

Impressive video - arigatou for upload!

[animegirl4forever]

kuro!!!!

[Niyama]

how come all colours have one (or maybe two) kanji (?) only pink and orange dont?

i saw in your other video that most are just put together, is that the case here? and if so, why doesnt it work for pink and orange?

[GenkiJapanNet]

It's because pink and orange come from English so are written in katakana.

some of the colors have 色 in them which is the kanji for "color"

[hxasmirl]

The japanese have borrowed the word 'pink' from english and then japonized it a little? It would otherwise appear strange that so unsimiliar languages would have this similarity.

[mashi384]

the girl prnouncing it sounds like magibonchan

[wolflover549]

i luarned Silver from an anime from the 80s, and i needed Gild for a fan fic about it so thanks

[SilverGunZoO]

silver is me ^_^

[peggyzoewong]

ah, my chinese surname is 'yellow' meaning in japanese, my surname is kiiro?

[funnyarunchhantyal]

how do u say friend in japanese plz can someone tell me

[Madscientist115]

Google japanese translation.

[nelle775]

友達 = ともだち = tomodachi

seriusly you could have found that one by yourself easily :P

[BrandnEwkid]

Nakama or Tamogachi I think...Japanese has so much synonyms..

[00IA131X]

pink＝桃色（ｍｏｍｏ-ｉｒｏ）

[GenkiJapanNet]

Only very, very rarely is this used, and it' s a very specific peach shadee. "pinku" is the one to use normally.

[00IA131X]

orange＝橙色（daidai-iro）

[GenkiJapanNet]

You never hear that used outside Japanese textbooks!

[tijanitza]

my friends call me midori

wee im green

pinku kawaii

[pumpkingoth]

the only one of those i didnt know was murasaki lol

[Bambinax3Mack]

Midori is a guitar hero player...cool!!

[manni788]

Hey, thanks alot. I have been learning Japanese for about 8 weeks, and due to your lessons i have learnt a lot.

[ltlocus]

noice! my favorite color is AO!

[nerdishh]

On the game 'My Japanese Coach', they teach some of the colors differently. For example,

orange = orenji iro

red = akai

blue = aoi

i'm pretty sure white was = shiroi

and black = kuroi

Which one is right? Does it matter? Is it a dialect thing?

[GenkiJapanNet]

Don't worry, the Genki Japan ones are right! The names of the colours don't have the "i" on the end, you just add that when you combine it with other words!

[manni788]

Hey, you said the question i was just about to ask! hahaha thanks alot. Good game

[animeangela227]

omg i have that Japanese coach game too!!!!

i was just wondering that same question!!

[emilicious046]

When you add the 'i' to it, it makes it an adjective. With out it it's just the color.

For example, if you were going to say my hair is black:

Watashi no kaminoke wa kuroi desu.

Just kuro means black. Someone correct me if i'm wrong :d

[hinomotoJPN]

blue = ao (noun), aoi (adj)

red = aka (noun), akai (adj)

white = shiro (noun), shiroi (adj)

iro = color

orange = orenji-iro (color of orange)

i think iro is supposed to be put for foreign words like orange

[ve8729]

These videos are very helpful for people starting to learn Japanese. I know most of these already, but the tune is catchy nonetheless.

[ToomasKedrov]

wooooohh... XD

I LOVE IT , IT SO AMAISEING!

[gledalka]

coool:D thx

[cjl5344]

Richard don't listen to people complain your nice enough to put these vids up thank you very much!

[Swordbladepirate]

Arigatou! I've been searching everywhere for a video that teaches you colors in Japanese, but they all weren't in any sort of song so they weren't easy to remember.

[flamegecko]

no longer available?

tried reloading a few times. nothing. =(

[GenkiJapanNet]

it's probably your internet connection, I plan on leaving it up here for a long time!

[GacktTheone27]

it doesnt matter abt the melody as long we can learn the japanese language then its enough ^^

[hurtmeloveme]

You've produced better videos. Why not make a catchy song to go with this one too? If you don't, that stupid song from the geico commercials will be stuck in my head instead. =/

[GenkiJapanNet]

Fair comment. People were complaining about the melodic songs saying the were too kiddie-like! I'm trying to find the balance as to whether people want those types of songs or the dance ones like this!

[hurtmeloveme]

Noo please GenkiJapan, keep the catchy songs, no matter how silly they sound! They help us soo much.

[JapanAnimeSuki]

i thought the songs were actually more helpful then just saying it.

They were kiddie like but I enjoyed them as well and they helped me learn. This other approach is fine, but its more like just a regular class, hear it and repeat.

[Weerwolf1993]

Agree :)

[GenkiJapanNet]

That's good to know, thanks. I've got a couple of new ones that just need editing up, let me try and finish them off for you.

[Athrun52]

i thought it was akai and aoi and is there another word for pink?

[GenkiJapanNet]

aka and ao are the names of the colors, you just pop an "i" on the end when you use them to describe something. Don't worry, just listen to lots of Japanese and you'll naturally pick it up, just like when to use "a" or "an" in English.

Some textbooks say "momoiro" for pink, but I've never ever heard it outside textbooks, again most textbook Japanese is appallingly bad! Pinku on the other hand you hear every single day, mostly combined with "Pinku!!!!!! Kawaiiiiiiiii!!!!!!"

Be genki,

Richard

[blueItachi]

yay! colors!

[ggbrsd]

good video i loved the song in the backround. -_-"

[HanaChan10]

I only knew red before I watched this xD thanks for uploading.

[karakurawhite]

Good job 5/5

[sumizome18]

This video isn't the best catching you've had I'm a bit disappointed, but I'm going to still watch for the sake in learning japanese!

[hrabbit]

thank you! I was just trying to memorize the colors, you guys just made it 100000 times easier XD

[iCutandCry]

You're amazing! Thanks for posting this!

So along with knowing my numbers I'll now know my colours! :D

[ihacklover]

konichiwa

[JUNKYCRAZYAL]

dank you! dis video comes in great help!

[HongsiquanWingDing]

this is the best color learning video out there. I'm removing all the others from my favorites and replacing w/ this video.

ARIGATO

[GenkiJapanNet]

No promises, but if anyone has any requests for future themes then please write them here and I'll see what I can do!

[coushcrew]

I knew most of these already^^ But it was still awesome!!! I think I should catch some people into my Japanese trap........(don't ask! XD)

[Mardolin]

the kanjis are way to hard for me ;P

[GenkiJapanNet]

It's just practice, watch the video 20 times straight and you'll be able to recognise them!

[matman125]

Isn't there an "i" in blue (aoi) or does it situational?

That's my fav color, btw.

[GenkiJapanNet]

Good question, it's "ao" if you talk about the colour on its own, like here, but mostly you'd put an "i" on the end to talk about something like a blue ferrari or something.

[Loony3107]

thanks a lot!!

[funnyfurtuson]

Thanks, i was acctualt just about to look up names of colours =)

[TheSpiderSpinoza]

hey, lady murasaki wrote tales of Genji. The first ever novel.

[DarkCalius]

Hey! Thanks^^

Aoi iro o aishitemasu ^_^

[Gansebord]

Thanks! I was waiting for this vid :)

[werwoelfer]

Cool and helpful^^