Video:Learn Japanese: How to Write Primary Colors as Adjectives in Hiragana

Transcript:Learn Japanese: How to Write Primary Colors as Adjectives in Hiragana

Hi, my name is Michael Metcalf, I'm a student of Japanese at the University of Missouri in Columbia. In this video I am going to show you how to write the primary colors in Hiragana.

The Primary Colors in Japanese

Hiragana is the script that represents all of the sounds found in the Japanese language, and are used to write all the words in native Japanese language. Let's go over the primary colors in Japanese. They are red, blue/green, yellow, black and white.

Let's start with our first one... red. In Japanese red is, Akai.

Blue/Green in Japanese Hiragana

Next we'll do blue/green. This might seem a little confusing, blue and green, aren't they two different colors? Yes they are, and in Japanese they each have their own separate words. Often, Japanese will use the word for blue to describe objects that are green. For example, if they are at a stop light and it is red and when it turns green, Japanese will use the word for blue to describe what just happened. If you were to translate it literally into English it would be "Oh the light just turned blue." It's just a cultural note, just a cultural difference. So, blue, or green in Japanese is aoi.

Next is yellow, in Japanese yellow is kiiroi.

Next is black. In Japanese, black is kuroi.

For our final primary color, we have white. In Japanese, white is shiroi.

I hope you found this video helpful, and if you would like to find out more information on Japanese words, check us out on the web, at About.com.