"Blue and yellow make green" - Colors

Here are some of the major colors in the Romance languages, with cognates listed below. Note that these are adjectives, so have to be made to agree with the noun they modify. A very small illustration of how this works appears at the end of the article. See the forthcoming "How do adjectives work?" part of "Grammar Bits" for more information.

black - Spanish negro, Italian nero, French noir
white - Sp blanco, It bianco, Fr blanc
gray - Sp gris, It grigio, Fr gris
red - Sp rojo, It rosso, Fr rouge
yellow - Sp amarillo, It giallo, Fr jaune
blue - Sp azul, It azzuro, Fr bleu
green - Sp verde, It verde, Fr vert
orange - Sp naranja*, It arancia*, Fr orange
purple - Sp morado, It porporeo, Fr pourpre/violet
pink - Sp rosado, It rosa*, Fr rose

Cognates/memory hints:
negro/nero/noir - Sp. is obvious, the bad emperor Nero, film noir
blanco/bianco/blanc is like a "blank" piece of paper
grigio - like pinot grigio
rouge - like makeup to redden the cheeks, i.e. blush
It. giallo is pronounced "jal-lo", not unlike "yellow"; Fr. jaune is like jaundice, which gives the skin a yellow cast
azul/azzuro are like the azure skies; bleu, from German blau, is like blue
verde/verde/vert are like verdant, which is not just green, but the green of plants that are alive; amazingly enough, they're from the same Indo-European source as virile
orange - all forms like the fruit; the Sp and It don't change forms, by the way
pink - all forms connected to roses, of the pink variety we must assume; It form doesn't change

As I mentioned above, these being adjectives, they change according to the number and gender of the noun they modify. Watch:

masculine singular (like "day"): black cat - gato negro, gatto nero, chat noir
masculine plural (like "days"): black cats - gatos negros, gatti neri, chats noirs
feminine singular (like "night"): black (female) cat - gata negra, gatta nera, chatte noire
feminine plural (like "nights"): black (female) cats - gatas negras, gatte nere, chattes noires