Lawn (pronounced "loan")--color (plural Alwaan)

Colors in Arabic can get a bit tricky, so that's why we left them until the end of the year.   There are two types of adjectives for colors in Arabic.  The first type is the easiest....these are the colors related to things, and they are formed just like the adjectives related to countries.   Remember you form those adjectives by taking the name of the country and adding -ii for the masculine adjective and -iyyah for feminine adjectives, like this:

Amriikaa--America
Amriikii--American (m)
Amriikiyyah--American (f)

Lubnaan--Lebanon
Lubnaanii--Lebanese (m)
Lubnaaniyyah--Lebanese (f)

Some of the common adjectives for colors that are formed from nouns for things include the following:

Bunnii/iyyah - Brown (from "bunn" meaning coffee beans)
Wardii/iyyah or Zahrii/iyyah - Pink (from "wardah" or "zahrah"  meaning rose or flower) [Egyptians use the Turkish word "bembe" for pink]
Banafsijii/iyyah - Purple or violet (from "banafsij" meaning the Violet flower)
Burtuqaalii/iyyah - Orange (from "burtuqaal" meaning the orange fruit)
Rumaadii/iyyah - Gray (from "rumaad" meaning ashes)
Thahabii/iyyah - Gold (from "thahab" meaning gold)
Fiddii/iyyah - Silver (from "fiddah" meaning silver)
Kulii/iyyah - Navy blue (from "kul" meaning Kohl, the dark-blue powder used as eye-liner in the Middle East)
Khaakii/iyyah - Khaki (from the Persian word "khaak" meaning dust.  This is where English gets the word "khaki")

The second type of adjectives for colors in Arabic takes special forms, different from regular adjectives.  Remember, in Arabic the feminine form is usually made by simply adding the suffix "-ah" to the masculine form.  Adjectives of color (and many physical defects) often take different forms:

Azraq/Zarqaa' - blue m/f
Amar/amraa' - red m/f
Akhdar/Khadraa' - green m/f
Afar/afraa' - yellow m/f
Aswad/Sawdaa' - black m/f
Abyad/Baydaa' - white m/f

Here are a few example sentences:

^cIndii sayyaarah sawdaa' jadiidah. - I have a new black car.

Shaahadtu film abyad wa aswad. - I saw a black and white film.

Ayna qamiiii al-azraq? - Where is my blue shirt?

Al-kitaab al-amar ^calaa al-qaamuus al-akhdar. - The red book is on the green dictionary.

At-tuffaah amraa'.  The apple is red.

Al-mawzah afraa'.  The banana is yellow.

Lawn al-bar azraq.  The color of the sea is blue.

The rainbow:  In Arabic a rainbow is called "Qaws Quzaa" meaning "the bow of the rain god Quza.  Quza was the ancient Arabian god of rain, in the time before Islam.  Remember when we learned about how the Ka^cbah in Makkah used to be full of idols of the old Arabian gods, before the Prophet Muammad came and destroyed all the idols?  Well one of those idols they used to worship was Quza.  He was an important god to the ancient Arabians because there was not much rain in the desert.  Even though no-one worships him anymore, Arabs still call a rainbow "the bow of Quza."

What are the colors of the rainbow?

red - amar
orange - burtuqaalii
yellow - afar
green - akhdar
blue - azraq
indigo (really dark blue)  - niilii (or kulii)
violet - banafsijii