HaloBahasa

Colours in Indonesian

A dozen words, one of which literally means young red, and they all follow the noun.

a1Lesson 28 of 434 min

By the end of this lesson

  • Name the common colours
  • Use a colour in a sentence with the right word order

The list

merah ‘red’
biru ‘blue’
kuning ‘yellow’
hijau ‘green’
hitam ‘black’
putih ‘white’
cokelat ‘brown’
abu-abu ‘grey’
oranye ‘orange’
ungu ‘purple’
merah muda ‘pink’

Two that explain themselves

Merah muda is literally ‘young red’, which is a better description of pink than the English word is. Muda also means young for people, and unripe for fruit.

Abu-abu is ‘ash’ doubled. Cokelat is the chocolate, borrowed and reused.

Word order

Colours are adjectives, so they follow the noun like every other adjective.

mobil merah ‘a red car’
baju putih ‘a white shirt’

And with no verb needed:

Mobilnya merah. ‘The car is red.’

Asking

Warna apa? ‘What colour?’
Ada yang biru? ‘Is there a blue one?’

That second sentence is worth keeping. Ada yang plus an adjective is how you ask a shopkeeper for a different version of something, and it works for size, price and material as well as colour.

Merah putih

Red and white is the flag, and Merah Putih is what Indonesians call it. You will see the phrase on buildings, on shirts and in speeches, especially around 17 August.

Words from this lesson

warnacolour
merahred
putihwhiteMerah putih, 'red and white', is the Indonesian flag.
merah mudapinkLiterally 'young red'.
abu-abugreyA doubled word, like many colours borrowed from objects.