Color and size sentences: "The ball is red", "The cat is big"
Short answer: A describing sentence says what something is like: "The ball is red", "The cat is big". When you use both, size comes before color: "a big red ball".
Tap a sentence to hear it. Colors and sizes turn simple words into descriptions.
Updated 2026-10-30
Reviewed by Chinh Q. Hoang, PhD, founder, English for Fun · 2026-10-30
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Word order
- Two ways to use a color: after "is" (The ball is red) or before the thing (a red ball).
- Size comes before color: a big red ball, a small blue car.
- In Vietnamese the order is reversed ("quả bóng to màu đỏ"), so let your child hear the English order many times.
Practice at home
- Describe toys together: "The car is blue. It is a small blue car."
- Play "big or small?" with two cups, two balls or two shoes.
- Draw a big red ball and a small green ball and label them.
Practice with I Can Read
I Can Read practices these sentences on Paint Island, which opens with full access. The free first island, Look Island, starts with "I see a…" and "This is a…".
Free printable
Print-ready A4 sheets for "Color and size sentences: "The ball is red", "The cat is big"": a chart for the wall, cut-out flashcards and a worksheet with two short exercises. Free to print and share with your class.
Practice these words in the Learning Path
The Vocabulary stone has 5 short lessons on this theme, for example "Describing · careful, empty, helpful". Each lesson has five activities: hear, find, spell and review the words. Lesson 1 of Vocabulary is free. Open the Vocabulary stone.
Questions
Why "a big red ball" and not "a red big ball"?
English puts size before color. Children learn the order by hearing it, not by rules.
Which colors are used?
Red, blue, yellow and green, with big and small.
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