Being specific with colours

[Hero Doug]

I noticed a pattern when looking up colours. When wanting to be specific about a colour (when the difference between sky blue and navy blue matters) I noticed that in many cases just placing a well known noun in front of the colour suffices.

For forest green and 森林绿 works, sky blue and 天蓝色 work. I even asked someone to identify 猪肉粉红色 and they got it.

A Chinese friend told me that this way of identifying specific colours is fine in oral Chinese, but not so much in written Chinese.

So, what do I do about written Chinese? I'd really hate to see such an easy way of dramatically expanding ones vocabulary of colours get halted at the pen like this.

[anonymoose]

I think you have to do more or less the same as you would in English. After all, I guess most people would know what "pork pink" would be, but you wouldn't use that in an essay either, right?

The difficulty I find is understanding the meaning of colour words in Chinese that don't have a direct equivalent in English. For example, I've never quite grasped the difference between 棕色 and 褐色. And also 青色. I've heard everything from turquoise to dark purple.

[skylee]

青 can also mean black. A relevant old thread -> http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/12-horse-horse-tiger-tiger-slang-and-idioms89

[roddy]

Phrases like that seem to be used on 色谱s, so I'd imagine they're fine in a professional context. I can see that if you are say, writing a description, they might not fit. “It was a forest green forest" isn't going to get you many writing awards.

[jbradfor]

“It was a forest green forest" isn't going to get you many writing awards.

"It's a sky-blue sky. Satellites are out tonight."

[sorry, random Laurie Anderson lyrics pop into my head unbidden.]

[zhxlier]

I think it's ok to add noun before color names in writing. Just read any fashion report and you'll find 樱桃红，玫瑰紫 etc. However 猪肉粉红 is unlikely to be used as 猪肉 is not considered aesthetically pleasing. Just like in English, I've seen salmon used as a color in many cases but not pork.

[Hofmann]

Hex colors. It's the only way to go.

[Hero Doug]

Even an English list of colours is mind boggling. I honestly think that using many of these colours in any kind of context will get your blank stare; Viridian, Thulian pink, Nadeshiko pink, Periwinkle; it like reading off Star Trek planets (yeah, I think the Enterprise went to Periwinkle Prime once).

It seems like mimicking English is the easiest way to go.

[adrianlondon]

Some of those are strange. "Baby blue" must be the colour a baby goes if you leave it outside in Winter ...

[chrix]

there's a lot of research in this area, in the area of colour semantics, colour perception and psycholinguistics. I'm no expert in either area, so I can't provide any references off the top of my head, but I know there's lots to be found in academic journals etc.

[mingke]

Hey, I am a New Oriental Teacher in China, so I think I could answer your question with understanding of cultural difference.

Actually in mandarin Chinese, we do not have that specific rule or grammatical system in terms of expressing different colours, at least I've never learnt that in any level of schools in China. Oral expressions like you mentioned are fine, even in formal occasions.

If it comes to some sort of writing tests or formal writing, 色谱 is not actually working because it is more like scientific terms and nobody uses that.

My suggestion, in a safe way, is that to use another more common used expression: 玫瑰般红色(rose red) rather than 玫瑰红(rose red) strucuture.

compare the following two example sentences:

She has a rose red cheek.

A 她有玫瑰红色的脸颊

B 她有玫瑰般的红色的脸颊 (suggested)

you might notice the difference of 般(ban, literally means likewise), which is a tool that make every similar expression work grammatically. Also it is perfectly working in oral mandarin.

some other samples for you:

forest green

A 森林绿

B 森林般的绿色

salmo pink

A 三文鱼粉色（红色）

B 三文鱼般的粉色

Plus, this use of expression will not reduce the writing level, and it has a wider range of use.

[mingke]

actually a more popular or widely used version of this expression is noun+般的+colour.

Examples:

sky blue

A. 天蓝色

B. 天空般的蓝色(suggested)

rose red/pink

A. 玫瑰红色

B. 玫瑰般的红色

forest green

A. 森林绿色

B. 森林般的绿色

B ways of expressions will no lower your writing level, while at the sime time, this structure could be used in much wider range, both in oral and writing mandarin.

also people tend to use more pleasant noun to describe pleasing things.

[zhxlier]

Quote from the internet:

ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings. Peach, for example, is a fruit, not a color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.

Even an English list of colours is mind boggling. I honestly think that using many of these colours in any kind of context will get your blank stare; Viridian, Thulian pink, Nadeshiko pink, Periwinkle; it like reading off Star Trek planets (yeah, I think the Enterprise went to Periwinkle Prime once).

[Hero Doug]

mingke, that looks like a good suggestion, I'll look into it, it seems quite simple.