Colors in Arabic
When it comes to colors, we’re used to learning them as separate names without any particular connection between them. In Arabic, however, they follow special patterns that change depending on gender and plurality.
The main patterns are the following, and you’ll notice that the أفعل pattern is the same one used for the comparative form.
Let’s see the colors in action:
This أفعل pattern can be used not only to denote colors but also certain physical characteristics.
For example:
A second way to form color names is by taking the name of a substance or item (ashes, roses, oranges, coffee beans, etc.) and adding the nisba suffix –i (ـيّ / -iyy).
Examples:
Modern Arabic also directly borrows foreign color names, especially for shades that didn’t exist in Classical Arabic. These borrowed adjectives do not change for gender, number, or case.
Examples:
بيج (bij) = beige
موف (muf) = mauve
تركواز (turkwaz) = turquoise
