Novel Reading Excercise–Tilka al-Ra’iha

Learning Arabic Colors

Arabic Colors

Learning colors is an important first step to describing things in Arabic. Here you’ll learn some basic colors, including the masculine and feminine spelling of each, and how to use them in short phrases.

 

Color Masculine Feminine Example
Black         

 

 

 

أسود

aswad

 

 

سوداء

sawda’

 

 

سيارة سوداء

sayarat sawda’

(black car)

 

Blue        

 

 

 

أزرق

azraq

 

 

زرقاء

zarqa’

 

 

قميص أزرق

qamis azraq

(blue shirt)

 

Green          

 

 

 

أخضر

akhdar

 

 

خضراء

khadra’

 

 

حقيبة خضراء

haqibat khadra’

(green bag/purse)

 

Yellow        

 

 

 

أصفر

asfar

 

 

صفراء

safra’

 

 

قميص أصفر

qamis ‘asfar

(yellow shirt)

 

Red         

 

 

 

أحمر

ahmar

 

 

حمراء

hamra’

 

 

باب أحمر

bab ahmar

(red door)

 

White

 

 

 

أبيض

abyad

 

 

بيضاء

bayda’

 

 

كلب أبيض

kalb abyad

(white dog)

 

Orange        

 

 

برتقال

burtuqal

 

برتقالية

burtuqalia

 

قطة برتقالية

qitat burtuqalia

(orange cat)

Here is a helpful video to practice pronunciation and another video with additional colors, written with the short vowels.

 

Test Yourself

After reviewing the colors, test yourself. First, try to describe the room around you using as many colors as you can. Next, identify the colors in your clothing or any clothing you see.

 

Use the flashcards below to review the masculine and feminine spelling of each color.

 

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Resources for Self-Instructional Learners of Less Commonly Taught Languages Copyright © by University of Wisconsin-Madison Students in African 671 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.