Grammar: Word classes: Adjectives

Describing qualities and attributes

Colour

Colour words can be either adjectives or nouns:

She was wearing a red dress. [adjective]
That's a very bright red! [noun]

The following is a list of the basic colours:

* These are called the 'primary colours'.

Other colour words describe various shades of colour:

* These are usually used to refer to hair colour.
** This is usually used to refer to eye colour - a mix of brown and green.
*** Gender-specific.

Sometimes we describe a colour by using a word associated with that colour (eg a food, flower or mineral):

We often attach the word 'coloured' to the above words:

A coffee-coloured shirt.
An olive-coloured blanket.

We often use words to modify colours:

Sometimes these modifying words are associated with a particular colour:

When we want to indicate that the colour is not definite, we can use suffixes such as -ish and -y:

The sky turned a sort of pinky colour.
The man escaped in a bluish-green car.

For PrimeTeach teaching activities which provide KS2 students with practice in using colours, see:

	Witches and vampires
	Weather words