Painting Italian — i colori
You already know il colore (the word for color itself), rosso, and nero. Here is the rest of the everyday palette — and the one grammar trap colors hide.
Three Agreement Classes
| class | behavior | colors |
|---|---|---|
| -o colors | 4 forms (-o, -a, -i, -e) | bianco, giallo, grigio, azzurro |
| -e colors | 2 forms (-e, -i) | verde, marrone, arancione |
| invariable | never change | blu, viola |
| The snow is white. | La neve è bianca. |
| My mother's shoes are brown. | Le scarpe di mia madre sono marroni. |
The invariable colors keep one form no matter what they describe:
| The blue car is new. | La macchina blu è nuova. |
| These flowers are purple. | Questi fiori sono viola. |
Azzurro vs blu
Italian splits English blue in two: azzurro is the light blue of a clear sky (and of Italy's national teams — gli Azzurri), while blu is dark blue.
| The sky is light blue. | Il cielo è azzurro. |
| The sea is dark blue. | Il mare è blu. |
La neve
La neve — snow — is the classic thing to describe as bianca.
| In winter there is snow. | In inverno c'è la neve. |
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