teaching colors to children

Question

My wife is a daycare provider and has been teaching a little Spanish to her 2- to 4-year olds. She has purchased a few pre-school level books as well. A few of them are on the colors, though there are a few discrepancies between a couple of the colors. I am guessing that the different words may be for different shades, but am not positive. Can you give us a sense of how these differ?

Pink: rosa and rosada Brown: marrón and café Purple: morado and púrpura

Orange: naranja and anaranjado. I believe that naranja refers to the fruit and the color, while anaranjado would be used to describe a colored item (the yellow ball). Is this correct?

Any help would be great. ¡Gracias!

Answer 1

These are the most standard words used:

Pink: ROSADO (Rosa is only used in Mexico)

Brown: MARRON (Café is also only used in Mexico)

Orange: ANARANJADO o NARANJA (both are correct, but the 1st one is better) People use "naranja" because is shorter and simple to say it quickly.

Purple: MORADO ( Púrpura is less used)

Answer 2

¡Hola!

I believe the differences are one word is an adjective, the other is a noun.

rosa is an adjective for pink; rosado is a masculine noun for pink.

marr?n is an adjective for brown; café is a masculine noun for brown.

morado is an adjective for purple; p?rpura is a feminine noun for purple.

Answer 3

It is easier to learn a new language as a child, so the children should be able to learn the words and concepts. There are many different colors to teach, but the basic ones are white-blanco, black-negro, red-rojo, pink-rosado, green-verde, blue-azul, brown-moreno, orange-naranja, purple-morado, yellow-amarillo. You are correct, the different words for the colors listed in your question above are just different ways to describle a color. Shades of the color, or the noun with which it is describing can change the word, but still have the same basic meaning. Moreno is brown, but used when describing skin color or hair color. Café is brown, but used when describing a car or book for example. Orange is naranja, but depending on the region, anaranjada is used. Both words can mean the color, but anaranjada is only used as an adjective.