As we saw in the previous lesson, colors in Spanish are adjectives that are often used before nouns or accompanying the verb SER (to be). In this lesson, we will learn some specific questions and phrases to talk about colors in Spanish including saying what your favorite colors are, asking for the color of things and more. Let’s begin…
Introductory video: A list of basic colors in Spanish – Colores básicos
We will first review the vocabulary for basic colors in Spanish with a short video including several beautiful pictures related to them, plus some questions and sentences describing the color of the things. You can activate the captions (cc) to see the English translation if needed. Do your best to get the message without translating.
Common questions and phrases to talk about colors in Spanish.
Asking about the color of things in Spanish
Let’s review a few things first. Colors are placed after nouns as in “Un auto rojo” (a red car). Just like other adjectives, they change their gender depending on the noun they modify. Second, if we use the articles EL, LA, LOS, LAS before a color, it will become a noun as in “El azul” (the blue one). Last, we commonly use colors after ES and SON, both conjugations of SER, as in “El cielo es azul” (the sky is blue).
Now, let’s move to the new stuff. In order to ask about the color of things in Spanish, we use the question “¿De qué color es + object?” (what color is…?) or more casually “¿Qué colors es + object?” omitting the word DE. If we want to know the color of several things, then we just replace ES for SON as in ¿De qué color son las flores?
Listen to some examples using these questions to ask for colors in Spanish.
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¿De qué color es el carro? – El carro es gris.
What color is the car? – The car is gray
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¿Qué color es su pelo? – Su pelo es negro.
What color is her hair? – Her hair is black.
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¿De qué color son las flores? – Las flores son blancas.
What color are the flowers? – The flowers are white
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What’s your favorite color in Spanish?
To ask someone about their favorite color in Spanish, we will use the questions ¿Cuál es tu color favorito? and ¿Cuál es el color que te gusta más?. The answer will often use the phrase: “Mi color favorito es + color”. This question is very simple to remember and you can easily change the word “color” for another thing to talk a different subject. Here are two examples talking about people’s favorite colors in Spanish.
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¿Cuál es tu color favorito? – Mi color favorito es el celeste
What is your favorite color? – My favorite color is sky blue
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¿Cuál es el color favorito de Ana? – Su color favorito es el púrpura.
What is Ana’s favorite color? – Her favorite color is purple
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I like the color blue in Spanish…
If you want to know if someone likes a color, then use the question “¿Te gusta el color + color?”. You might get the answer “Me gusta el + color” (I like + color), “Me encanta el + color” (I love + color) and “No me gusta el + color” (I don’t like + color). For instance, for the phrase “I like the color blue in Spanish” you can say “Me gusta el color azul.” Listen to some more specific examples of questions and phrases with colors in Spanish following a similar pattern.
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¿Te gusta el color verde claro? – Si me gusta ¿y a ti?
Do you like light green? – Yes, I like it, and you?
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¿Te gusta la camisa naranja o la camisa café? – Me gusta la café
Do you like the orange or the brown shirt? – I like the brown one.
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¿Te gusta el vestido rosado? – Me encanta.
Do you like the pink dress? – I love it.
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¿Te gustan los zapatos blancos? – No me gustan.
Do you like the white shoes? – No, I don’t like them.
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Light and dark colors in Spanish
You can talk about light and dark colors in Spanish by adding the words CLARO (light) and OSCURO (dark) after a color, e.g. “Verde claro” (light green) and “Azul oscuro” (dark blue). Interestingly, most people will not pay too much attention to the specific names of certain colors. This means that instead of using words like MAGENTA, FUCSIA, CEREZA, ROSA SALMÓN or any other, we would say only ROSA as all of them are variation of the color ROSA. Actually, we do tend to use the words claro (light) and “oscuro”(dark) to differentiate colors in Spanish and sometimes the phrase “Ese color que parece…” (That color that looks like…).
Before you leave, make sure to practice with this short quiz about the questions and phrases used to talk about colors in Spanish. Also, practice listening with a lesson including colors in real conversations. ¡Hasta pronto!