Basic
| Vietnamese | English |
|---|---|
| màu sắc | color |
| trắng | white |
| đen | black |
| đỏ | red |
| (da) cam | orange |
| vàng | yellow |
| xanh | green, blue |
| chàm | indigo |
| tím | violet |
| tía | purple |
| hồng | pink |
| xám | gray |
| ghi | |
| nâu | brown |
Extended
| Vietnamese | English |
|---|---|
| đỏ tươi | scarlet |
| đỏ son | vermilion |
| be | beige |
| vàng chanh | lime |
| xanh nõn chuối | chartreuse green |
| xanh lá (cây) | green |
| xanh lơ | cyan |
| xanh da trời | azure |
| thiên thanh | |
| xanh nước biển | blue |
| xanh dương | |
| hồng cánh sen | magenta |
Sino-Vietnamese
Sino-Vietnamese colors, as the name suggests, are words indicating colors borrowed from (classical) Chinese. Similar to numbers, their purpose isn’t to replace the native colors, but they remain significant to Vietnamese culture in particular and language in general.
| Chinese characters | Sino-Vietnamese | English |
|---|---|---|
| 白 | bạch | white |
| 黑 | hắc | black |
| 紅 | hồng | red |
| 黃 | hoàng | yellow |
| 綠 | lục | green |
| 青 | thanh | green-blue, cyan |
| 藍 | lam | blue |
| 紫 | tử | purple |
Note: Normally, hồng means “pink”, but when intended to have that “Chinese vibe”, it means “red”.
If you look closely, you will see that some of these Sino-Vietnamese words are very similar to the “native” ones above. It’s because those “native” words actually have Chinese origins.
| Chinese characters | Sino-Vietnamese | Non-Sino-Vietnamese | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| 黃 | hoàng | vàng | yellow |
| 青 | thanh | xanh | green, blue |
| 藍 | lam | chàm | blue |
| 紫 | tử | tía | purple |
Last but not least, cam (“orange”) is actually Sino-Vietnamese (柑).