<p>Not necessary to pair them with 色. But you can. </p>

<p>Just take 红 as an example.</p>

<p>红 can be used as a noun and also an adjective. Same for 红色.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-23T20:06:20.073Z
2014-11-23T20:06:20.073Z
Falang
<p>In English, "red", "green", "yellow" can be used as adjectives or nouns. However, in Chinese, 红 绿 蓝 can only be used as adjectives. For nouns, the 色 suffix in mandatory.</p>

<pre><code>The color of the trousers is green.   这条裤子的颜色是绿色。  (noun)
This is a pair of green trousers.     这是一条绿裤子。/这是一条绿色的裤子。 (adjective)
</code></pre>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-28T17:45:40.610Z
2014-11-28T17:45:40.610Z
Victor
<p>I think there are two key reasons to add or not to add 色:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>色 adds formality especially for shorter (1~2 characters) color words.</p></li>
<li><p>色 can be added or omitted for the prosody of the sentence. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>I found a good article on this very topic: <a href="http://wenku.baidu.com/view/7463db8e83d049649b665878.html?re=view">对外汉语教学中汉语颜色词的构成分析</a>. A few points taken from/inspired by the article:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>色 is necessary if the word itself is not a color, such as 咖啡色 (the coffee color).</p></li>
<li><p>'New age' color words should not be suffixed by 色 (my understanding is they are more like proper nouns), such as 土豪金 (the Tuhao golden)</p></li>
<li><p>Reduplicated color words should not be followed by 色, such as 绿油油 (glossy green).</p></li>
</ol>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-23T21:09:32.720Z
2014-11-23T21:09:32.720Z
NS.X.
<p>I'm making something to teach students Chinese colors... Let's say they have to match a color to a square- Is it okay to just use 红， 蓝， 紫， etc on each block just as long as they know 色 means color... or does it always need to be paired with 色 (ex: 红色， 蓝色， 紫色, etc...)?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-23T20:56:49.117Z
It depends on the context. By using a color word, that color is implied, you can also use （color）＋ 的 to refer to the respective blocks. E.g. A： 可以给我那本书吗？ B： 那一个？ A： 你右手边红色的那本。
Krazer
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-12T00:05:29.390Z
I'll add the forward duplicate here: there's more answers at the other question.
Becky 李蓓
<translation><mandarin><teaching-methods>
Using 色 with colors
# Using 色 with colors

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-11-23)

I'm making something to teach students Chinese colors... Let's say they have to match a color to a square- Is it okay to just use 红， 蓝， 紫， etc on each block just as long as they know 色 means color... or does it always need to be paired with 色 (ex: 红色， 蓝色， 紫色, etc...)?

**Tags:** translation, mandarin, teaching-methods

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: It depends on the context. By using a color word, that color is implied, you can also use （color）＋ 的 to refer to the respective blocks. E.g. A： 可以给我那本书吗？ B： 那一个？ A： 你右手边红色的那本。  
> **username_2**: I'll add the forward duplicate here: there's more answers at the other question.  

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## 3 answers

### Answer by username_5 on 2014-11-23. Score: 9 | Accepted answer

I think there are two key reasons to add or not to add 色:

1. 色 adds formality especially for shorter (1~2 characters) color words.
2. 色 can be added or omitted for the prosody of the sentence.

I found a good article on this very topic: [对外汉语教学中汉语颜色词的构成分析](http://wenku.baidu.com/view/7463db8e83d049649b665878.html?re=view). A few points taken from/inspired by the article:

1. 色 is necessary if the word itself is not a color, such as 咖啡色 (the coffee color).
2. 'New age' color words should not be suffixed by 色 (my understanding is they are more like proper nouns), such as 土豪金 (the Tuhao golden)
3. Reduplicated color words should not be followed by 色, such as 绿油油 (glossy green).


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### Answer by username_3 on 2014-11-23. Score: 1

Not necessary to pair them with 色. But you can.

Just take 红 as an example.

红 can be used as a noun and also an adjective. Same for 红色.


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### Answer by username_4 on 2014-11-28. Score: 0

In English, "red", "green", "yellow" can be used as adjectives or nouns. However, in Chinese, 红 绿 蓝 can only be used as adjectives. For nouns, the 色 suffix in mandatory.

```
The color of the trousers is green.   这条裤子的颜色是绿色。  (noun)
This is a pair of green trousers.     这是一条绿裤子。/这是一条绿色的裤子。 (adjective)

```


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