Stroop Color Words in 11 Languages
On this site, each language page builds its Stroop stimuli from that language's color words. The table below lists the four words used for each language and the string used in the neutral condition.
The column order matches the order of the response buttons (1·2·3·4, D·F·J·K). Click a language name to take the test in that language.
| Language | RED | GREEN | BLUE | YELLOW | Neutral string |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 한국어 | 빨강 | 초록 | 파랑 | 노랑 | ＸＸ |
| English | RED | GREEN | BLUE | YELLOW | XXX XXXX XXXXX XXXXXX |
| 日本語 | 赤 | 緑 | 青 | 黄 | 〇 □ △ ※ |
| 简体中文 | 红 | 绿 | 蓝 | 黄 | 〇 □ △ ※ |
| Español | ROJO | VERDE | AZUL | AMARILLO | XXXX XXXXX XXXXXXXX |
| Português | VERMELHO | VERDE | AZUL | AMARELO | XXXXXXXX XXXXX XXXX XXXXXXX |
| Français | ROUGE | VERT | BLEU | JAUNE | XXXXX XXXX |
| Deutsch | ROT | GRÜN | BLAU | GELB | XXX XXXX |
| Русский | КРАСНЫЙ | ЗЕЛЁНЫЙ | СИНИЙ | ЖЁЛТЫЙ | ХХХХХХХ ХХХХХХ ХХХХХ |
| العربية | أحمر | أخضر | أزرق | أصفر | ××× ×××× |
| Bahasa Indonesia | MERAH | HIJAU | BIRU | KUNING | XXXXX XXXX XXXXXX |
Words in the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets are shown in capitals. The highlighted row is the language you are viewing.
Why these four colors?
Red, green, blue and yellow are the colors that Berlin & Kay (1969), comparing basic color terms across many languages, found in any language with six or more basic color terms, alongside white and black. That is why all 11 languages have short, common words for them.
The four colors are easy to tell apart on screen, and four buttons map neatly onto the index and middle fingers of both hands (D·F·J·K). For reference, Stroop's original paper used five colors: red, blue, green, brown and purple.
The neutral strings are matched roughly to the length of each language's color words. Japanese and Chinese, whose color words are a single kanji, use single-character symbols (〇 □ △ ※); Korean uses full-width ＸＸ; Arabic uses ×.
Notes by language
- Korean — Uses 빨강·초록·파랑·노랑 (red, green, blue, yellow). Just as a green traffic light is commonly called 파란불 (“blue light”) in everyday speech, the line between blue and green can be blurry in the spoken language, but in the test they are separate buttons.
- Japanese — Uses the single kanji 赤·緑·青·黄. Japanese 青 has long covered part of green as well, which is why a green traffic light is called 青信号. 黄 is usually written 黄色, but here it is standardized to a single character.
- Chinese — Uses the simplified characters 红·绿·蓝·黄. 青 can refer broadly to shades between blue and green, so it is not used.
- Russian — Has two basic color terms for blue: синий (dark blue) and голубой (light blue). Here синий is used, and the ink is also set close to dark blue. There is research showing that Russian speakers distinguish colors that cross the boundary between the two blues faster (Winawer et al., 2007).
- Arabic — Uses أحمر·أخضر·أزرق·أصفر (masculine forms). Text is written from right to left, but the row of response buttons keeps a left-to-right order to match keyboard keys 1–4.
- Spanish and Portuguese — Use the masculine forms ROJO·VERDE·AZUL·AMARILLO and VERMELHO·VERDE·AZUL·AMARELO. Long words automatically shrink in font size to fit the screen.
- French, German, Indonesian and English — ROUGE·VERT·BLEU·JAUNE, ROT·GRÜN·BLAU·GELB (umlaut kept), MERAH·HIJAU·BIRU·KUNING, and RED·GREEN·BLUE·YELLOW.
- Because word length varies across languages (from the single character 赤 to the eight letters of VERMELHO), reaction times are hard to compare directly between languages. Compare within the same language.
References
Berlin, B., & Kay, P. (1969). Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution. University of California Press.
Winawer, J., Witthoft, N., Frank, M. C., Wu, L., Wade, A. R., & Boroditsky, L. (2007). Russian blues reveal effects of language on color discrimination. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(19), 7780–7785.
Stroop, J. R. (1935). Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 18(6), 643–662.