緑

Pattern visualization

Examples

1. 緑のお茶が好きです。▶ —
   I like green tea.
2. 春の緑がきれいです。▶ —
   Spring greenery is beautiful.

Collocations

Mnemonic

緑 midori — noun for "green / greenery". Unlike 赤·青·白·黒·黄, there is no i-adjective 緑い; predicatively it stays as 緑だ. Green entered the Japanese color lexicon late (after the four-color classical system 赤白黒青), so the adjective form never crystallized. Poetic idiom 緑の黒髪 = "green-black hair" = glossy, vital black hair — here 緑 means "lustrous/vital", a fossil sense surviving from when 緑 referred to freshness more than to color. Onyomi りょく (ryoku): 緑茶 (ryokucha, green tea), 新緑 (shinryoku, fresh greenery).

Quick check

1. Why is there no i-adjective 緑い?

   • Green wasn't in the classical four-color system, so the adjective form never standardized
   • Too hard to pronounce
   • Excluded by modern standardization
   • Overlaps with 青