Russian Colors: Pronunciation and Examples

Russian colors are generally used in the same way as colors in English. However, when it comes to blue, there are two separate blue colors in Russian: голубой (galooBOY)—meaning light blue—, and синий (SEEniy), which encompasses all shades of medium and darker blue.

This distinction is very important in Russian and the two colors (голубой and синий) are each considered to be a separate color that is equal to all other colors.

Colors in Russian

To remember some of the basic Russian colors, use this mnemonic for the colors of the rainbow:

Каждый охотник желает знать, где сидит фазан (KAZHdiy aHOTnik zheLAyet ZNAT' GDYE siDEET faZAN).

Translation: Every hunter wants to know where the pheasant sits.

The first letter of each word in the mnemonic corresponds to one of the colors of the rainbow:

• каждый - красный (KRASniy) - red
• охотник - оранжевый (aRANzheviy) - orange
• желает - жёлтый (ZHYOLtiy) - yellow
• знать - зелёный (zeLYOniy) - green
• где - голубой (galooBOY) - light blue
• сидит - синий (SEEniy) - blue
• фазан - фиолетовый (fee-a-LYEtaviy) - purple/violet

Below are some more Russian colors you should know:

How to Use the Color Words in Russian

Russian colors change their endings based on their gender, number, and case. Although this may seem confusing at first, once you start to use the colors in your speech, you will get used to the endings.

In dictionaries, Russian colors are always given in the masculine form. Use the following endings for each gender and number:

Singular

Masculine:
-ый, -ий
Example: красный (KRASniy) - red

Feminine:
-ая, -яя
Example: красная (KRASnaya) - red

Neuter:
-ое, -ее
Example: красное (KRASnaye) -red

Plural

For all genders:
-ые, -ие
Example: красные (KRASnyye) - red

The table below provides the endings for the main Russian colors.

Additionally, Russian colors also change their endings when the nouns that they relate to change case. It is important to learn these correctly if you want to speak Russian like a native speaker.

When the colors change by case, their endings are one of the following, based on whether the last letter before the ending is soft, hard, or mixed:

Here is how the color синий (medium/dark blue) changes by case and gender:

Examples:

- Красная Шапочка шла по лесу (KRASnaya SHApachka SHLA PO lyesoo)
- The Red Little Riding Hood was walking through the forest.

- У тебя нет красного карандаша? (oo tyBYA net KRASnava karandaSHA)
- Do you have a red pencil?

- Он ехал с Красного моря (on YEhal s KRASnava MOrya)
- He was traveling from the Red Sea.

- Голубое небо (galooBOye NEba)
- A blue sky.

- Юбку мы раскрасим голубым (YUPkoo my rasKRAsim galooBYM)
- We will color the skirt blue.

- Видишь ту голубую машину? (VEEdish too galooBOOyu maSHEEnoo)
- Can you see that light blue car?

- Жёлтый песок (ZHYOLtiy peSOK)
- Yellow sand.

- У нас нет жёлтой лопатки (oo NAS net ZHYOLtai laPATki)
- We don't have a yellow toy spade.

- Повсюду были жёлтые цветы (paFSYUdoo BYli ZHYOLtye TSVYEty)
- Yellow flowers were everywhere.

- Чёрный экран (CHYORniy ekRAN)
- The/a black screen.

- Где вы видели эту чёрную кошку? (GDYE vy VEEdeli EHtoo CHYORnooyu KOSHku)
- Where did you see this black cat?

- Мы едем на Чёрное море. (my YEdem na CHYORnaye MOre)
- We are going to the Black Sea.