قرمز

قرمز is the workaday red. If you point at a red car or a red apple in a Tehran shop, this is the word you reach for.

What it actually means

قرمز (qermez) means “red” in everyday spoken and written Persian. It is the default color word for red objects in modern conversation: red light, red car, red dress, red wine, red lipstick. Iranians of every region use قرمز freely. It is the first “red” a learner needs and the only one most everyday situations require. The literary register prefers سرخ (sorkh), but in normal life قرمز dominates.

How to use it

قرمز is a regular adjective, placed after the noun:

• ماشین قرمز (mâshin-e qermez) “red car”
• سیب قرمز (sib-e qermez) “red apple”
• چراغ قرمز (cherâgh-e qermez) “red light / traffic light”
• شراب قرمز (sharâb-e qermez) “red wine”

Comparative قرمزتر (qermez-tar, “redder”); superlative قرمزترین (qermez-tarin, “the reddest”). The verb قرمز شدن (qermez shodan) means “to turn red,” used for blushing, sunburn, embarrassment, and ripening fruit.

How to say it

Formal (نوشتاری): قرمز · qermez · “red”

Colloquial (محاوره): قرمز · qermez · same form

In a sentence

• یه ماشین قرمز خریدم. · ye mâshin-e qermez kharidam. · I bought a red car.
• پشت چراغ قرمز ایستادیم. · posht-e cherâgh-e qermez istâdim. · We stopped at the red light.
• صورتش از خجالت قرمز شد. · surat-ash az khejâlat qermez shod. · His face went red with embarrassment.

Cultural context

قرمز is a Turkic-Mongol loanword (from Old Turkic qïrmïz, ultimately related to the cochineal insect that produced the dye). It entered Persian during the Mongol-Ilkhanid period and has since outpaced the older native سرخ in everyday use, the way Old French “rouge” pushed older English “red” sideways in some contexts. The two coexist with a clear register split: قرمز everyday, سرخ literary. In football vocabulary, the Persepolis Tehran fan club is sometimes called قرمزپوشان (qermez-pushân, “the red-wearers”), but the more common nickname is سرخ‌ها (sorkh-hâ). When a learner is unsure which red to use, قرمز is almost always the safe choice.

Related

Compare with سرخ (red, literary) and آبی (blue). See the full set in the Persian colors guide.