Breakdown of Какой это цвет?
это
this / it is
какой
which/what kind of (m, sister forms: какая, какое)
цвет
color
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Russian grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about Какой это цвет?
Why do we use какой here instead of какая or какое?
Какой is a question word meaning "which" or "what kind of", and it has to match the gender of the noun it describes. The word цвет (color) ends in a consonant, making it a masculine noun. Therefore, we use the masculine form какой.
I thought "what" was что. Why are we using какой to ask "what color"?
Что is used to ask "what" about a general object or concept (like "What is this?"). Какой is used when you are asking for a specific quality, description, or choice among options (closer to "which" or "what kind of"). Since you are asking for a specific descriptive quality (the color), you must use какой.
Since цвет is masculine, shouldn't это be этот to match it?
Not in this sentence! Here, это is acting as a generic "pointing" pronoun meaning "this thing is", which always stays in its default это form. You would only use этот if you were directly attaching it to the noun to say "this color" (for example, "I like этот цвет").
Why is это in the middle of the sentence? Can I say Какой цвет это?
While Russian word order is flexible and people would understand you, putting это between the question word and the noun is the most natural and standard way to ask this. Think of the sentence flow as "What (is) this color?"