My Cantonese Lexicon VI: Colours

English	Cantonese	jyutping	yale
colours	顏色	ngaan4 sik1	ngàahn sīk
black	黑色	haak1 sik1	hāak sīk
white	白色	baak6 sik1	baahk sīk
grey	灰色	fui1 sik1	fūi sīk
brown	啡色	fe1 sik	fē sīk
beige	米色	mai5 sik1	máih sīk
silver	銀色	ngan4 sik1	ngàhn sīk
gold	金色	gam1 sik1	gām sīk
green	綠色	luk6 sik1	luhk sīk
red	紅色	hung4 sik1	hùhng sīk
purple	紫色	zi2 sik1	jí sīk
blue	藍色	laam4 sik1	làahm sīk
blue/green	青色	ceng1 sik1	cēng sīk
pink	粉紅色	fan2 hung4 sik1	fán hùhng sīk
yellow	黃色	wong4 sik1	wòhng sīk
orange	橙食	caang4/2* sik1	cháang sīk
maroon	棗紅色	zou2 hung4 sik1	jóu hùhng sīk
chestnut	栗色	leot6 sik1	leuht sīk
multicoloured	彩色	coi2 sik1	chói sīk
light + colour	淺 + _____	cin2 + _________	chín + ______
dark + colour	深 + _____	sam1 + ________	sām + ______

For example: ’light blue’ = 淺藍色 (cin2 laam4 sik1)

‘dark blue’ = 深藍色 (sam1 laam4 sik1)

*Some words experience a tone change. CantoDict (see below) attributes this to whether the character is being read in a literary manner or a colloquial manner, but some Hong Kong friends have told me that the tone depends on what surrounds the word.

E.g. jyu4 (yùh) = literary, jyu2 (yú)= colloquial

(Please see CantoDict's explanation: http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/essays/tones.htm#cantodict_tones )

If there are any errors, or you have some feedback, feel free to send me a message or write a comment. I am not an expert in the Cantonese language, but have asked native Cantonese speakers to check my lists. I am a student and my goal is to write a clear vocabulary list to help me (and others) learn. You can find out more about my reason for these lists here: My lexicon series.