Vocabulary in Practice 1 - Unit 10: Colours

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Vocabulary in Practice 1 – Beginner

Learn the words in the notes below, then work through exercises A–F. Every answer is checked instantly. Original practice written for All English 4U.

1 Tier 1 – The Concept & Nuance: Primary Shades, Modifiers & Spelling

Colour adjectives in English always precede the nouns they modify and never take plural endings. Notice the spelling differences between British and American English.

🎨 Primary & Core Colours

red 🔴 · blue 🔵 · yellow 🟡
green 🟢 · orange 🟠 · purple 🟣
pink 🌸 · brown 🟤 · black ⚫ · white ⚪

💡 Shades & Modifiers

light blue (pale) vs dark blue (deep)
bright yellow (vivid, intense)
navy blue · golden · silver
grey (UK) / gray (US)

💡 Spelling Note: UK uses colour and grey; US uses color and gray. Both conventions are standard in international exams.

2 Tier 2 – Essential Collocations & Idioms with Colours

⚖️ Adjective Position & Fixed Idioms

Before Noun	“She has a red* car and dark green eyes.”*
After Linking Verb	“Her dress is blue.” / “The leaves turned yellow.”

🔗 Colour Idioms

– in black and white (written clearly)

– out of the blue (completely unexpected)

– green with envy (very jealous)

– see red (become very angry)

3 Tier 3 – Top 3 Common Learner Pitfalls

✗ ~~I bought a jacket red yesterday.~~

✓ I bought a red jacket yesterday.

– Rule: Colour adjectives always go directly before the noun.

✗ ~~She was wearing greens shoes.~~

✓ She was wearing green shoes.

– Rule: Adjectives never take plural -s in English.

✗ ~~He wore a blue dark sweater.~~

✓ He wore a dark blue sweater.

– Rule: Modifiers like light, dark, bright always precede the base colour.

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Tier 4 – Interactive Practice: Match colours and object descriptions in Exercises A–D below!