Colours

[Taliana]

I have sections in my Korean notepad where I make vocab lists, all grouped together by theme. For example, animals, foods, types of weather, etc. I was trying to put together a list of colours, but ran into a problem.

Looking in both my dictionary and the kclass online dictionary, there seems to be more than one word for each colour. How do you know which one to use?

For example, the word "yellow" gives me, from the kclass dictionary:
겁많은
노란
노란색
노랑
황색

Earlier today, I was asking 현우씨 about a yellow fruit, and I called it "노란색 과일". Judging by the response I got from him, using 노란색 for yellow wasn't wrong. But I have no idea if 겁많은 과일 or 노랑 과일 are also right, or if they're wrong, or my randomly chosen 노란색 the only right (or normal) one.

I have a thought that it's got something to do with the word 색. A lot of the colour words seem to have 색 in them, and there's even 무색 for "colourless".

But really, what's the deal with it all? And how do you know which to use?

[rooraa]

I'm confused about that too!
But I think 색 means color.....? 저는 몰라요 --____--

[manyakumi]

Yes.
색(色) means "color".

And for "yellow", these are the standard forms.

노랗다 (as an adjective)
노랑 (as a noun)

겁많은 means "easy to be scared" so we can't say 겁많은 과일.


노란색 과일
노란 과일
노오란 과일
샛노란 과일
노랑 과일
황색(黃色) 과일
누런 과일
노르스름한 과일
누리끼리한 과일
노릇노릇한 과일

these all stand for "yellow fruit" in slightly different nuances.
Korean has a lot of color expressions.

[matthew254]

these all stand for "yellow fruit" in slightly different nuances.
Korean has a lot of color expressions.

Yeah it was explained to me this way once: You know all those colors you can find on paint swatches at the paint store? You know, color names that no one uses? "Barn House Red" "Majestic Green" "Kumquat Orange" etc? Yeah, apparently Koreans use these in addition to just plain-jane color names.

I mean, we use the fancy names too - but for finding the right paint color. We generally just say "Green" or add descriptions in front like "pale" or "dark" and call it a day. It doesn't throw us when we say "Green" and it describes five different shades of green.

성수 형, is that right? Is that why there are so many different color names in Korean?

[manyakumi]

Good point, Matthew.

I don't think all those are the name of specific colors.
They are describing the amounts of color's lightness and saturation.
As I had mentioned about the standard forms, we just say 노랑 for yellow.

But we all have some color images on each expressions I've wrote and also use them in daily conversations.

[Taliana]

I've got enough trouble remembering purple from lilac from lavendar!

Thanks for the explanation

So if I'm just saying "yellow" as in "the colour yellow", I would use 노랑?

I'm trying to work out why on earth 겁많은 comes up in the kclass dictionary when you search for yellow. Maybe because of the phrase "yellow belly", which means someone who's always scared or easily scared.

[manyakumi]

So if I'm just saying "yellow" as in "the colour yellow", I would use 노랑?

You're right.
Or you could say 노란색 as well.

As you know, 노란 is qualifying the word 색 which means "colour".
So 노란+색 means "yellow colour"

Differ from English, a noun can qualify another noun in Korean.
That's the reason why you are able to use both 노란 과일 and 노란색 과일.
As a matter of fact, a possessive particle 의 has been omitted from there.

노란색(의) 과일

Am I making you more confusing?
I'm sorry if I am.

[Taliana]

Haha no, you're not making me more confused! It makes more sense to me than it did when I first asked my question, so any progress in understanding is good, right? XD

Thankyou!

[javiskefka]

Well, our English color words consist of the basics that we can use for any shade of a certain color (blue), as Matthew said, but we also have more particular words that come either from the names of flowers (periwinkle) and gemstones (sapphire) or from other languages (cerulean).

I don't think they carry particular feelings, as the Korean color words seem to do, but rather they are associated with specific objects or places, so the feeling depends on each person's experiences or associations with objects described by the color word.

[Taliana]

Well, our English color words consist of the basics that we can use for any shade of a certain color (blue), as Matthew said, but we also have more particular words that come either from the names of flowers (periwinkle) and gemstones (sapphire) or from other languages (cerulean).

I'm not even sure what colours periwinkle, sapphire and cerulean are! Colours like "ruby" and "lavender" I get, but the majority of the rest are just right over my head. Though I'm alright with things like "lime green", since I know what green is and I know what type of green limes are.

I think everyone should just stick to the boring basic ones XD

[manyakumi]

Of course I already know that you have many names of colours.
Since I was majoring in industrial design so I was even used to them.
I didn't mean to discuss these kinds of things but colour expressions of original colour such as white, black, yellow, red, blue...
It's not about 옥색, 물색, 살구색... things.
As Matthew mentioned, 'light', 'dark', 'pale'... things.


For example,

White:
하얗다
새하얗다
허옇다
허여멀겋다
희다
희끄므레하다
희끗희끗하다
etc..

Black:
검다
거멓다
까맣다
새까맣다
까뭇까뭇하다
거무스레하다
거무튀튀하다
etc..


Not to be more complicated,
I'm gonna get rid of qualifiers such as 약간, 좀, 심히, 가벼운, etc...