Colours are a practical and engaging part of everyday Japanese. Whether you’re describing clothing, food, or nature, knowing colour words will help you express yourself more clearly. In this mini-lesson, you’ll learn the most important colours in Japanese, complete with pronunciation audio to support your learning. All resources are free to help you learn Japanese online at your own pace.
The Japanese word for colour is 色 (iro). Japanese uses both native and Sino-Japanese colour terms, and many of these function as either nouns or adjectives, depending on context. We’ll start with the most useful everyday colours to get you speaking and understanding faster.
Learn colours in Japanese
| English | Japanese with pronunciation volume_down |
|---|---|
| Red | 赤 |
| Pink | 桃色 |
| Orange | オレンジ |
| Yellow | 黄色 |
| Brown | 茶色 |
| Blue | 青 |
| Purple | 紫 |
| Green | 緑 |
| White | 白 |
| Black | 黒 |
| Grey | 灰色 |
Click on any Japanese word to hear how it’s pronounced. Listening and repeating is one of the best ways to memorise vocabulary and improve your speaking confidence.
Grammar Notes
Colour words in Japanese can appear in two forms: as adjectives or as nouns. Adjective forms often end in -い and behave like regular い-adjectives. For example:
- 白いシャツ – a white shirt (shiroi shatsu)
- 黒い靴 – black shoes (kuroi kutsu)
Some colours, especially loanwords or compound colours, are used with the particle の to link them to a noun:
- オレンジのかばん – an orange bag
Practise and Expand
Now that you know the core colours in Japanese, try using them to describe objects around you or create simple sentences. You can revisit this page any time to listen to the pronunciation and review vocabulary. All our content is designed to help you learn Japanese online for free and build your skills naturally.
Want to go further? Visit our full Japanese vocabulary section and explore more everyday topics with audio support.