KalamColors in Arabic
Colors in Arabic are ألوان (alwān); one color is لون (lawn, or lōn in dialect). The basic colors are أحمر (aḥmar, red), أزرق (azraq, blue), أخضر (akhḍar, green), أصفر (aṣfar, yellow), أسود (aswad, black) and أبيض (abyaḍ, white). They change with feminine nouns: a red car is سيارة حمراء (sayyāra ḥamrā').
Literally: “colors (singular لون, lawn)”
Colors across the Arab world
Arabic changes from country to country. Here's what you'll actually hear.
"What color is it?" is ما لونه؟ (mā lawnuh?).
"What color?" is لونه إيه؟ (lōnu ēh?). Pink is بمبي (bambi) and purple is often موف (mōv).
Levantineلونlōn"What color?" is شو لونه؟ (shū lōno?). Pink is زهر (zahr) and grey is رصاصي (rṣāṣi).
GulfلونlōnThe greeting شلونك (shlōnak), "how are you," literally means "what's your color?" (Kuwait and Iraq).
DarijaلونlūnMoroccan Darija. Basic colors match MSA, with dialect sound changes such as ḥmer for red.
Colors in Arabic
Other ways to say colors
How to say it right
The sounds English speakers find tricky, and how to get them right.
Practise with feedbackThe six basic colors share one pattern, a-CC-a-C: aḥmar, azraq, akhḍar, aṣfar, aswad, abyaḍ. Their feminine forms share another, CaCCā': ḥamrā', zarqā', khaḍrā'. Learn the pattern and you've learned them all.
ḍ in akhḍar and abyaḍ is an emphatic d: tongue low, back of the mouth tense. It makes the vowel next to it sound deeper.
ḥ in aḥmar is a breathy throat h, like fogging a mirror. Don't turn it into kh.
In everyday speech the final hamza drops, so ḥamrā' becomes ḥamra and bayḍā' becomes bēḍa.
Example sentences
I want this dress, but in red.
EgyptianWhat's your favorite color?
LevantineI bought a white car.
GulfThe sky is blue and the grass is green.
Standard (MSA)Using it like a local
Colors show up in everyday idioms. قلبه أبيض (albu abyaḍ in Egypt and the Levant), "his heart is white," means someone is kind and holds no grudges. A ضحكة صفرا (ḍiḥka ṣafra), "yellow laugh," is a fake or nervous smile, and يوم أسود (yōm aswad), "a black day," is a disaster.
Arabic color words are all over the map. The Red Sea is البحر الأحمر (al-baḥr al-aḥmar), the Mediterranean is البحر الأبيض المتوسط (al-baḥr al-abyaḍ al-mutawassiṭ), "the white middle sea," and the Alhambra in Spain takes its name from الحمراء (al-ḥamrā'), "the red one."
The Gulf and Iraqi greeting شلونك (shlōnak) comes from شو لونك, "what's your color?" Asking about someone's color, meaning their state or condition, became the everyday way to say "how are you."
Colors: common questions
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How do you say red in Arabic?
Red is أحمر (aḥmar) for masculine nouns and حمراء (ḥamrā') for feminine ones. In spoken Arabic the feminine is usually just ḥamra: عربية حمرا (ʿarabiyya ḥamra) is "a red car" in Egyptian.
Why do Arabic colors have masculine and feminine forms?
Adjectives in Arabic agree with the noun they describe. A red pen (قلم, masculine) is قلم أحمر (qalam aḥmar), but a red car (سيارة, feminine) is سيارة حمراء (sayyāra ḥamrā'). Non-human plurals usually take the feminine singular too.
How do you say pink in Arabic?
In MSA pink is وردي (wardī), "rose-colored." Egyptians often say بمبي (bambi), and Lebanese and Syrians say زهر (zahr). All three are understood in their own regions.
Does shlonak really mean "what's your color"?
Yes. شلونك (shlōnak), used in Kuwait, Iraq and parts of the Gulf, is a contraction of شو لونك (shū lōnak), "what's your color?" Today it simply means "how are you?" and nobody thinks of colors when they say it.
Related words & phrases
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