Colors: What color is it?

Rules

• Rule 1: Color words

  Common colors: red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple, pink, brown, black, white, gray. In American English we write color and gray.

  Example: Grass is green.

  Example: Elephants are gray.

• Rule 2: What color…?

  To ask about color, say What color. Use is for one thing and are for more than one. Answer with It's for one thing and They're for more than one.

  Pattern: What color is it? — It's red. · What color are they? — They're red.

  Example: What color is your bag? — It's pink.

  Example: What color are your shoes? — They're black.

• Rule 3: Color before the noun

  The color comes before the noun. For one thing, put a first: a + color + noun.

  Pattern: a + color + noun → a blue car

  Example: It's a yellow bus.

  Example: She has a white rabbit.

• Rule 4: Colors never take -s

  The noun gets -s in the plural, but the color stays the same. Also: orange starts with a vowel sound, so we say an orange …

  Pattern: two red cars (~~reds~~) · an orange hat

  Example: I have three green pencils.

  Example: It's an orange fish.

Common mistakes

• I have a ball red. → I have a red ball.

  The color goes before the noun.

• She has reds shoes. → She has red shoes.

  Colors never take -s; only the noun does.

• What color is your socks? → What color are your socks?

  “socks” is plural → are.