black/red

K

knowledge123

Senior Member
Polish
Hi. I have a little problem. I'm learning color names in Czech and some websites teach it in this form:

black= černá
red= červená

while other websites show it like this:

black= černý
red= červený

I know that in sentences the form can change e.g. černá kráva vs černý kůň, but I'm talking about the "neutral" form (situation), when you just name/mention colors...

In Polish we always say:

czarny (black), czerwony (red), zielony (green), so as you can see it's always in masculine form...

How is it in Czech?

Thank you :)
 
    • If you could link to the website, it would surely help. Maybe the page was specifically about naming colours. 'Colour' is barva (feminine), so it's possible to say "red" (to mean specifically the colour) as červená, black as černá, blue as modrá, white as bílá, yellow as žlutá and so on. It's the feminine form because the word 'barva' is understood in the context and doesn't need to be repeated.
    So if the example went something like this: jaká je to barva? What colour is it?, the natural answer would be: černá, červená, modrá etc. The word 'barva' is understood, but the speaker still needs to use the feminine form of the adjective.
     
    Last edited:
    Yes, that's as I imagined the context. They're talking about the names of the colours and they make it clear the adjective refers (in the context) to "barva", a feminine noun, so the adjective has to be in the feminine form. "Barva" is understood.
    What color is this?
    Referring to the color itself

    barva     = color červená = red, modrá = blue, žlutá = yellow [source: your links above]
    Click to expand...
    If you're interested in a serious grown-up manual of Czech grammar for reference, you can download Karel Tahal's 'A GRAMMAR OF CZECH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE' free here (kupdf.net), or Landa & Townsend's 'Czech' here (kupdf.net), or James Naughton's 'Colloquial Czech' here (kupdf.net).
     
    Last edited:
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