15+ Colorful Words For Serbian Colors

This post will teach you how to describe the Serbian colors and appearance of people and things. You will learn to express whether something is red or blue, big or small, beautiful or ugly.

For Serbians, colors are very important because they reflect many things such as the psychological, character, fashion, cultural, and historical aspects. Not only these but also from the aspect of their meaning on flags, the meaning of things like belts in karate, and in the end, what is always interesting is the meaning of the colors of the rose.

So, I will provide you with some useful and interesting information about colors. For starters, let’s talk about how to say Serbian Colors (most common):

Osnovne boje (Primary Colors

English Serbian (Cyrillic)   Serbian (Latin)    Gender
red  црвена сrvena crvena ruža (f) – red rose

crven/crveni šešir (m) – red hat

crvena krv (middle) – red blood

blue  плава plava plave farmerice (f) – blue jeans

plav/plavi trotinet (m) – blue scooter

plavo nebo (middle) – blue sky

yellow  жута  žuta  žuta kuća (m) – yellow house

žut/žuti peškir (f) – yellow towel

žuto pile (middle) – yellow chicken

 

Izvedene Or sekundarne boje  (Secondary Colors)

English Serbian (Cyrillic)   Serbian (Latin)  Gender
brown браон braon braon čokolada (f) – brown chocolate

braon sat (m) – brown watch

braon drvo (middle) – brown wood

maroon бордо bordo bordo sofa (f) – maroon sofa

bordo džemper(m) – maroon sweater

bordo cucla (midlle) – maroon bottle

orange  наранджаста narandžasta  narandžasta fasada (f) – orange facade

narandžasti bicikl (m) – orange bicycle

narandžasto lišće (middle) – orange leaves

cream color  беж bež bež torba (f) – cream color bag

bež kaiš (m) – cream color belt

bež polje (middle) – cream color field

navy blue  тегет teget teget lopta (f) – navy blue ball

teget automobil (m) – navy blue car

teget ćebe (middle) – navy blue blanket

turquoise тиркизна tirkizna tirkizna suknja (f) – turquoise skirt

tirkizan/tirkizni ogrtač (m) – turquoise cloak

tirkizno more (middle) – turquoise sea

purple љубичаста ljubičasta ljubičasta košulja (f) – purple shirt

ljubičasti jastuk (m) – purple pillow

ljubičasto cveće (middle) – purple flower

green зелена zelena zelena salata (f) – green salad

zelen/zeleni čaj (m) – green tea

zeleno drvo (middle) – green tree

pink розе roze roze lala (f) – pink tulip

roze suncobran (m) – pink umbrella

roze jezero (middle) – pink lake

 

Ahromatske boje  (Achromatic Colors)

You may have noticed that so far we have not mentioned white and black. This is because white and black are not colors. White is full of light or the sum of all colors, and black is the absence of light. They serve to lighten or darken the colors as chromatic tones (Greek chroma – color).  Mixing white and black creates a gray (shadow). White, black, and gray are what we call achromatic tones.

English Serbian (Cyrillic) Serbian (Latin) Gender
white бела bela bela majica (f) – white T-shirt

beo/beli mantil (m) – white coat

belo mače (middle) – white kitten

black црна сrna crna dama (f) – black lady

crn/crni kaiš (m) – black belt

crno odelo (middle) – black suit

grey сива siva siva čarapa (f) – gray sock

siv/sivi slon (m) – gray elephant

sivo ogledalo (middle) – gray mirror

 

A Little Bit Of Grammar

I’m sure that you have already noticed that in the names of the colors, the suffix changes depending on the gender of the noun next to them. When placed next to a masculine noun, they can end in a consonant or –i. Also, the continuation -i tells us that the term is known to us and whether the suffix of the consonant in the term is unknown or, more precisely, we are hearing about it for the first time.

Because of these kinds of rules,  it can look like Serbian is hard to learn. However, in modern speech, no distinction is made between these two forms. You can pronounce it as you see fit.

If we are talking about the colors standing next to a feminine noun, the suffix is –a. The Serbian language also has a middle grammatical gender (e.g. child, some objects, and things like that). The color next to the noun of that gender ends with -o.

Serbian colors

More About Serbian Colors

If there is a light and dark shade of color, Serbians write them together with the name of the color: svetlo plava (light blue), tamno plava (dark blue), svetlo crvena (light red) tamno crvena (dark red), etc.

If an object is colored with opposite shades of colors, we put a dash between the words, for example, crno – belo (black and white) shirt, or crveno-plavo-bela zastava (red-blue-white flag) as the colors of the Serbian flag.

Of course, there are many more colors, but these are the basic ones. For example, painters use a whole range of colors with strange names, such as Burnt Sienna (baked hay, a type of brown color), Prussian Blue (Prussian blue).

Finally, let me mention that there are a lot of idioms, expressions in the Serbian language, which contain colors.

 

For example:

– Crna ovca u porodici (black sheep of the family.)

– Imaš plavo oko vrata. (You have blue around your neck. ) Serbians say it when someone is very boring and wants to ” strangle” whoever they are talking to.

– Bela zastava (white flag) is a symbol of surrender.

 

Appearance And Attributes

English Serbian (Cyrillic) Serbian (Latin)
new ново novo
old старо staro
small мало malo
large / big велико veliko
young младо mlado
kind / pleasant љубазно / пријатно ljubazno / prijatno
unkind / unpleasant нељубазно neljubazno
patient стрпљиво strpljivo
tall (people) висок visok
middle sized (people) средњег раста srednjeg rasta
small (people) низак nizak
fat дебео debeo
thin / slim танак / мршав tanak / mršav
nice / pretty лепо lepo
beautiful прелепо prelepo
ugly ружно ružno
ill / sick болесно bolesno
healthy здраво zdravo
happy / cheerful срећно / раздрагано srećno / razdragano
sad тужно / несрећно tužno / nesrećno
sporty спортски sportski
ambitious амбициозан ambiciozan
intelligent интелигентно inteligentno
creative креативно kreativno
active активно aktivno
sentimental сентиментално sentimentalno
rational рационално racionalno
emotional осећајно osećajno
natural природно prirodno
romantic романтично romantično
nice / amiable пријатан prijatan
spontaneous спонтано spontano
energetic енергично energično
stressed (out) под стресом pod stresom
relaxed опуштено opušteno
frustrated фрустрирано frustrirano
talented надарено nadareno

 

If you want to learn these along with other useful Serbian words and phrases, you should consider using language learning apps like Ling App.

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