Colours

Colours are words that describe the appearance of objects by referring to light and pigment. In English, colours are used as nouns (the colour of something) and as adjectives (a red folder). Learning colour vocabulary helps you describe products, branding, reports, and office items clearly in professional contexts.

• Colour words can act as nouns or adjectives: 'the colour' vs 'a blue shirt'.
• Many colours have shades and modifiers: 'light green', 'dark blue', 'navy'.
• Colours are useful in business for branding, documents, and visual descriptions.

Use colours to describe nouns and use modifiers to show shades or intensity:

• Colour as adjective: place before the noun — a blue folder, a gray report.
• Combine modifiers: size/opinion + colour + noun — a large dark blue chart.
• Colour as noun: 'the colour' or 'this colour' — The colour of the logo is teal.

When in doubt, put colour words directly before the noun they describe.

Watch out for these universal errors when using colour vocabulary:

• Incorrect adjective order: placing modifiers after the colour (e.g., 'red bright tie').
• Treating colour words as countable nouns without context (e.g., saying 'reds' instead of 'red items').
• Forgetting to match articles and determiners with the noun (e.g., 'the blue folder' vs 'a blue folder').
• Confusing the colour word with related nouns (e.g., 'a blue' is not valid without context).
• Using inconsistent spelling: 'colour' (UK) vs 'color' (US) — be consistent in documents.

Focus on word order, article use, and consistent spelling for clear professional communication.