italiano · A1 · vocabulary · 4 minutes
Colors
Describe familiar objects while matching color endings to gender and number.
Understand the choice
Italian colors become useful through complete noun descriptions. Learn which adjectives have four forms, which have two forms such as verde/verdi, and which remain unchanged.
Core rule: Most color adjectives agree in gender and number; blu and some borrowed/invariable colors do not change.
Notice it in context
La bicicletta è rossa, ma i caschi sono neri.
The bicycle is red, but the helmets are black.
Rossa agrees with feminine singular bicicletta; neri agrees with masculine plural caschi.
Il mare è blu e gli alberi sono verdi.
The sea is blue and the trees are green.
Blu is invariable; verde changes to plural verdi.
Ho una camicia bianca e un cappotto marrone.
I have a white shirt and a brown coat.
Bianca agrees with camicia; marrone uses the two-form pattern.
What to remember
- Arancione usually has plural arancioni; rosa is often invariable as a color.
- Chiaro and scuro can follow a color and normally remain singular in compound color labels.
Common trap: Do not leave a four-form color unchanged: scarpe nere, not scarpe nero.