92688
Like the title says, I don't understand the purpose of adding 色 to color
words. For example:

  * 緑のドレスを着ている vs 緑色のドレスを着ている
  * 赤い車を運転した vs 赤色の車を運転した vs 赤の車を運転した

I know both styles are common, but in what situation would you use one over
the other?
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2021-12-21T15:02:29.327
92682
2021-12-22T15:06:57.073
38831
question
word-choice nuances colors
What purpose does adding 色 to colors achieve?
The meaning of 緑色 is strictly limited to the color green, whereas 緑 includes
the color green and other figurative meanings like 'greenery', 'natural',
'environmentally-friendly', etc.

While the exact phrase 緑の can refer to something green colored (as would 緑色の),
the difference is that this phrase could also have a figurative meaning. It
can be used creatively to describe a variety of things associated with the
concept 'green'. For example, take the phrase
[緑の募金](https://www.green.or.jp/bokin/first/know), which is used in this
specific context to mean supporting local environmentally-friendly projects.
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2021-12-21T17:21:22.177
92683
2021-12-21T17:21:22.177
25875
92682
answer
色 doesn’t play any particular purpose or add any particular nuance in the case
of 緑. It just might sound a bit redundant to some people.

> 緑のドレスを着ている。
>
> 緑色のドレスを着ている。

色 is practically mandatory in certain other colors.

> 黄色のドレスを着ている。
>
> 茶色のドレスを着ている。
>
> 灰色のドレスを着ている。
>
> 黄土色のドレスを着ている。

It should not be surprising that words like 灰 and 黄土 need to be followed by 色
because they don’t refer to colors by themselves outside of very limited
contexts.

Though 茶 is much more established as a standalone word for the color brown,
and 黄 is nothing but the name of the color yellow, these still require 色 for
some reason. It is such an integral part that it even appears in their
adjective forms.

> 黄色いドレスを着ている。
>
> 茶色いドレスを着ている。

On a side note, it is interesting that the name of the most typical kind of
Japanese tea (today) needs to be modified by another color, as 緑茶.

A few other basic colors have adjective forms (without 色), as well as noun
forms.

> 白いドレスを着ている。
>
> 黒いドレスを着ている。
>
> 赤いドレスを着ている。
>
> 青いドレスを着ている。

If the purpose is to simply describe how the person looks, I would say these
with adjectives sound slightly more natural than the following sentences with
nouns.

> 白のドレスを着ている。
>
> 黒のドレスを着ている。
>
> 赤のドレスを着ている。
>
> 青のドレスを着ている。

Though the difference is subtle, these sound a bit like the speaker’s focus is
on what color the person chose to wear out of multiple choices. In other
words, the color seems to get more weight in 白のドレス than in 白いドレス, which is
more about the dress and the color is only one of its attributes.

To me, 色 sounds more redundant with 白 and 黒 than 赤 and 青, and 緑 for that
matter.

> 白色のドレスを着ている。[very redundant]
>
> 黒色のドレスを着ている。[very redundant]
>
> 赤色のドレスを着ている。
>
> 青色のドレスを着ている。
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2021-12-22T02:02:58.063
92688
2021-12-22T02:02:58.063
43676
92682
answer
It is worth mentioning that this usage is probably inherited from Chinese,
where each character corresponds, roughly, to a single-syllable word. Since
there are only a limited number of syllables, many characters are pronounced
the same, and it would be difficult to know which of several possible meanings
you intended. The solution is to add some sort of 'qualifier': an extra word
that clarifies the meaning.

Thus, '綠: green' becomes '綠色: green colour', '藍: blue' -> '藍色: blue colour',
'紅: red' -> '紅色: red colour', ...
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2021-12-22T08:34:02.983
92690
2021-12-22T08:34:02.983
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answer
For a general answer, just look at what everybody else is saying on here.

I will note however, that the one exception is "Yellow" (黄色). Here, the "色" is
baked into the name of the color itself!

For example you would say

> 赤いペン (red pen)
>
> 黄色いペン (yellow pen)

but

> 黄いペン

is non-grammatical.
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2021-12-22T15:06:57.073
92691
2021-12-22T15:06:57.073
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answer