VocabularyJLPT N5 · core

黄色

きいろ

hepburn kiiro

yellow (noun)

Part of speech · noun

Pattern visualization

色color

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Examples

黄色の花がきれいです。
The yellow flowers are pretty.
彼の声は黄色い。
His voice is shrill (lit. yellow).

Collocations

黄色 (kiiro, yellow — noun)黄色い (kiiroi, yellow — i-adj)黄色い声 (kiiroi koe, shrill voice — often of girls/fans)黄信号 (kishingou, yellow traffic light)黄昏 (tasogare, dusk — literary)

Mnemonic

黄色 kiiro — 黄 (yellow) + 色 (color), a compound. The other colors (赤·青·白·黒) work as standalone nouns, but 黄 usually needs 色. Same pattern: 茶色 (chairo, brown = "tea + color"), 灰色 (haiiro, gray = "ash + color"). Yellow joined Japan's color lexicon after the original four classical terms, so it gets different grammatical treatment. Idiom 黄色い声 (kiiroi koe, "yellow voice") = a shrill high-pitched cry (typically girls cheering) — a cross-modal extension where color stands in for sound texture.

Quick check

What sound quality does 黄色い声 describe?