• Black – Black follows the same construction form that the color white uses, that I’ve talked about in the previous post, changing it’s form with the gender and with it’s plural. So you can have a “carro preto” (black car, male) or a “camisa preta” (black shirt, female). In the plural form, you just have to add the “s” letter at the end of it. So you can have “carros pretos” (black cars) or camisas pretas (black shirts).
• Red – This can be a tricky one, as there are two distinct words that have the same meaning, but are used more frequently on some parts of the country than on others. So, for red, you can have the word “vermelho” (more used in the south of the country) or the word “encarnado” (more used in the north). Like, with the previous colors it follows the same rules of construction, so you can have the “autocarro vermelho” (red bus, male) or the “luz vermelha” (red light, female). In the plural form we would have the “autocarros vermelhos” (red buses) and the “luzes vermelhas” (red lights). Using the “encarnado” word, we would have the “autocarro encarnado” (red bus, male) and the “luz encarnada” (red light, female).
• Brown – Again the same construction. You can have an “envelope castanho” (brown envelope, male) or “madeira castanha” (brown wood, female). In the plural form we would have “envelopes castanhos” and “madeiras castanhas“.
• Gray – You can have a “chapéu cinzento” (gray hat, male) or a “manhã cinzenta” (gray morning, female) or, in it’s plural form “chapéus cinzentos” and “manhãs cinzentas“.
• Yellow – Since we had to go through some pretty dull colors today, I’ll end up with yellow, to lighten things up and give you the true feeling of the current weather in Lisbon : Sunny, bright and warm. Guess who’s going for a ride on this Sunday afternoon . The yellow colors is said through the word “amarelo“. So you can have a “passaro amarelo” (yellow bird, male) or a “caneta amarela” (yellow pen, female). In the plural form, “passaros amarelos” and “canetas amarelas“.

Unlike the English language, where only a single word represents a color, in Portuguese you can have multiple words for the same color, given the object it applies to, the context or even the part of the country you came from! But relax, it’s not that hard.

• Blue – This is an easy one, just say azul if you are talking about a single object (céu azul means blue sky) or azuis if you talking about more than one object (olhos azuis means blue eyes).
• Green – Another easy one, just say verde. It changes a bit in it’s plural form (bandeira verde means green flag and olhos verdes means green eyes)
• Orange – Ok, this can be tricky, since it there two different ways of saying it, and both are correct. So you can say laranja or cor-de-laranja (meaning color of the orange, the fruit). There is no change in the plural form (camisolas laranja / camisolas cor-de-laranja and camisola laranja / camisola cor-de-laranja mean orange sweaters and orange sweater)
• Pink – Pink has the same rule that of orange, so you can say rosa or cor-de-rosa (color of the rose, the flower). Again no changes in the plural form (vestido rosa / vestido cor-de-rosa and vestidos rosa / vestidos cor-de-rosa mean pink dress and pink dresses)
• White – White changes in the plural form and in the nature of the object it applies to. For instance you can have a “pomba branca” (white dove, female) or a “carro branco” (white car, male). For the plural form, just add a “s” to the end (carros brancos for white cars and pombas brancas for white doves)

Keep in touch, we’ll learn more colors soon enough!