Colors – ‫األلوان‬

In Arabic, the colors (and other words referring to hair color, skin tone, etc.) take
special patterns unlike regular adjectives. Here are the patterns:

Plural – ‫جمع‬ Feminine – ‫مؤنّث‬ Masculine – ‫مذ ّكر‬

‫فُ ْعل‬ ‫فَ ْعالء‬ ‫أ َ ْف َعل‬
(NB: The form ‫ أفعل‬is not related to the comparative/superlative ‫ أفعل‬or Form IV Verbs in ‫أفعل‬.)

Remember that the plural is only used for human plurals, since non-human plurals
will take the feminine (singular) form.

‫جمع‬ ‫مؤنّث‬ ‫مذ ّكر‬ ‫جذر‬ ‫لون‬

‫زرق‬ ‫زرقاء‬ ‫أزرق‬ ‫ز–ر–ق‬ blue
‫حمر‬ ‫حمراء‬ ‫أحمر‬ ‫ح–م–ر‬ red
‫بيض‬ ‫بيضاء‬ ‫أبيض‬ ‫ب–ي–ض‬ white
‫سود‬ ‫سوداء‬ ‫أسود‬ ‫س–و–د‬ black
‫خضر‬ ‫خضراء‬ ‫أخضر‬ ‫خ–ض–ر‬ green
‫صفر‬ ‫صفراء‬ ‫أصفر‬ ‫ص–ف–ر‬ yellow

There are other colors in Arabic that do not follow this pattern. These are either
loan words, or adjectives built from nouns (‫)النسبة‬. Since they are regular adjectives,
they will take regular feminine and plural endings when describing nouns.

 Brown – ‫( بُنّي‬from the word ‫‘ بُ ّن‬coffee (bean)’)

 Pink – ‫( زهري‬from the word ‫‘ زهرة‬flower’)
 Purple – ‫( بنفسجي‬from the word ‫‘ بنفسج‬violet (flower)’)
 Gray – ‫( رمادي‬from the word ‫‘ رماد‬ash’)
 Orange – ‫( برتقالي‬from the word ‫‘ برتقال‬orange (fruit)’)
 Gold – ‫( ذهبي‬from the word ‫‘ ذهب‬gold’)
 Silver – ‫( فضّي‬from the word ‫‘ فضّة‬silver’)
In addition to the basic color adjectives, other words related to color, appearance,
and bodily form (or defect) take the same patterns

‫جمع‬ ‫مؤنث‬ ‫مذكر‬ ‫جذر‬ ‫معنى‬

‫سمر‬ ‫سمراء‬ ‫أسمر‬ ‫س–م–ر‬ tan, dark complexion
‫شقر‬ ‫شقراء‬ ‫أشقر‬ ‫ش–ق–ر‬ blond, fair complexion
‫شيب‬ ‫شيباء‬ ‫أشيب‬ ‫ش–ي–ب‬ gray, white-haired
‫صلع‬ ‫صلعاء‬ ‫أصلع‬ ‫ص–ل–ع‬ bald
‫عمي‬ ‫عمياء‬ ‫أعمى‬ ‫ع–م–ي‬ blind
‫طرش‬ ‫طرشاء‬ ‫أطرش‬ ‫ط–ر–ش‬ deaf
(For more examples of this pattern, check out: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Arabic_nominals#Color_or_defect_adjectives)

While we’re discussing colors, we should mention here the (in)famous Form IX
Verb pattern (‫ )افع ّل‬which is used almost exclusively for colors (or other states).
When a color root is put into the ‫ افع ّل‬pattern, it’s meaning is ‘to be become X’.
Here are some examples:

‫معنى‬ ‫مصدر‬ ‫ماضي مضارع‬ ‫جذر‬

to turn red; to blush;
‫حمرار‬
ِ ‫ا ِال‬ ‫َيح َم ّر‬ ‫اِح َمر‬ ‫ح–م–ر‬
to brown (food)
to become black; to blacken ‫ا ِالس ِوداد‬ ّ‫سود‬
َ َ‫ي‬ ‫ِسود‬
َ ‫ا‬ ‫س–و–د‬
–‫ب–ي‬
to turn white ‫ا ِالب ِيضاض‬ ‫ض‬
ّ ‫اِب َيض َيب َي‬
‫ض‬
to turn yellow; to jaundice;
‫ا ِالص ِفرار‬ ‫ص – ف – ر اِصفَر يَصفَ ّر‬
to go pale
to turn blue ‫زرقاق‬ ِ ‫ا ِال‬ ‫زر ّق‬ َ َ‫ِزرق ي‬
َ ‫ا‬ ‫ز–ر–ق‬
to turn green; to be dark ‫خضرار‬
ِ ‫ا ِال‬ ‫ض ّر‬ َ ‫ضر يّخ‬ َ ‫خ – ض – ر اِخ‬
to turn brown (tan) ‫االسمرار‬
ِ ‫س – م – ر اِس َمر يَس َم ّر‬

Since form IX is only used in MSA, Colloquial Arabic has its own ways of
describing these phenomena. The common is to use the verb ‫ صار‬with the color
adjective (‫‘ صار أحمر‬to turn red’). The other common option is to put these in Form
V (‫‘ تح ّمر‬to turn red’ [lit. to make oneself red]).