The Colors – Värit – Finnish Vocabulary
The world is colorful (värikäs), unless you’re blind (sokea) or color blind (värisokea). Colors come in all kinds of shades (sävy), the prettiest of which are represented in the rainbow (sateenkaari). Let’s learn some colors!
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| beige | beige |
| fuksia | fuchsia |
| harmaa | grey |
| hopea | silver |
| keltainen | yellow |
| khaki | khaki |
| kulta | gold |
| liila | lilac |
| musta | black |
| oranssi | orange |
| pinkki | pink |
| punainen | red |
| ruskea | brown |
| sininen | blue |
| turkoosi | turquoise |
| valkoinen | white |
| vihreä | green |
| violetti | purple |
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| vaaleansininen | light blue |
| tummansininen | dark blue |
| taivaansininen | sky blue |
| vauvansininen | baby blue |
| kirkkaansininen | bright blue |
| indigosininen | indigo blue |
| vaaleanpunainen | light pink |
| tummanpunainen | dark red |
| tulenpunainen | fiery red |
| viininpunainen | wine red |
| kirsikanpunainen | cherry red |
| kirkkaanpunainen | bright red |
| rubiininpunainen | ruby red |
| tiilenpunainen | brick red |
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| vaaleanvihreä | light green |
| tummanvihreä | dark green |
| harmaanvihreä | grey-green |
| limenvihreä | lime green |
| mintunvihreä | mint green |
| myrkynvihreä | poison green |
| oliivinvihreä | olive green |
| smaragdinvihreä | emerald green |
| vaaleanruskea | light brown |
| tummanruskea | dark brown |
| kastanjanruskea | chestnut red |
| aprikoosinvärinen | apricot colored |
| hiekanvärinen | sand colored |
| kullanruskea | gold-brown |
| kermanvärinen | cream colored |
| luumunvärinen | plum colored |
| mandariininvärinen | color of mandarins |
The questions associated with colors are “minkävärinen” (what color) and “millainen” (what kind). You can find out more about question words, as well as learn some other basic adjectives.
Important! Note that the names of the colors will inflect in the same cases as the word they’re connected to. This means that if the noun has -ssa at the end of it, the color also should have the -ssa ending. This is true for all the cases. For example, we’ll say vihreä takki (green coat), but vihreät housut; (green pants); likewise musta talo (the black house) becomes mustassa talossa (in the black house).
Some Sayings with Colors
- “Ruoho on aina vihreämpää aidan toisella puolella.”
- Literally: The grass is always greener at the other side of the fence.
- Meaning: Things always seem to go better for other people.
- “Rakkaus on aiheuttanut minulle harmaita hiuksia.”
- Literally: Love has caused grey hairs for me.
- Meaning: Love has caused a lot of trouble and sadness.
- “Hän ajoi punaisia päin.”
- Literally: He drove up to the reds.
- Meaning: He drove through a red light.
If you’re already at an intermediate level, you might also like these conversation questions related to colors!
What is the difference between these two Finnish words for the color purple or are they used interchangeably? The words are: violetti and purppura.
Kiitos.
Hey! Purppura is a purple with more red mixed in it. It’s really uncommon in regular language though.
Hello, shouldn’t the word for lilac be liila instead of lila?
Both are okay 🙂 I’ve always heard “lila”, but apparently liila is more common! Changing it 🙂
Hello! Thanks for this wonderful website.
Here the English of vaaleanpunainen is light pink. It will probably be light red. Thank you.