Example sentences
nǐ你xǐ喜huan欢shén什me么yán颜sè色？
What color do you like?
zhè这ge个yán颜sè色hěn很piào漂liàng亮。
This color is beautiful.
About this word
颜 began as the strip of skin between the eyebrow and the eye, and 色 began as the look on a face. Two face words, and the meaning travelled from the face outward to what the face shows, then to color in general. 颜色 is the general noun: 你喜欢什么颜色. For one specific color, Chinese puts 色 on the end of a color word, as in 红色, 蓝色, 绿色.
The story behind the character
颜
颜 is 页 (head) with 彦 giving the sound. Xu Shen's definition is unexpectedly exact: 颜，眉目之间也, the strip of skin between the eyebrow and the eye. That narrow patch is where a face gives away what it feels, which is how 颜色 ended up meaning color in general. It began as a piece of forehead.
色
色 is a person above a kneeling figure. Xu Shen read it as 颜气也, the qi of the face, what your expression does when something hits you. The first meaning was the look on somebody's face. Color came later as a generalization: your face has a color, and then so does everything else.