For Duolingo Greek learners, so many things are pink (ροζ).

So. many. things. We get pink elephants, pink avocados, pink water, pink gorillas, pink tables and more. Early on in the learning tree if an object has a color, odds are, that color is pink!

For the Duolingo Greek learning community, the near constant use of the word <<ροζ>> seems to be both a source of amusement and of frustration. One popular thought is that this use of the word <<ροζ>> over and over is meant to create sentences that are unusual and therefore memorable. On the other hand, the argument exists that surely there must be more useful colors to learn other than pink.

Are all those <<ροζ>> objects unusual and memorable? Absolutely.

But…

There must be more going on behind the scenes in that word choice.

So, what are some possible reasons that so many objects in the Duolingo Greek tree are pink?

1. The word <<ροζ>> is a single syllable that is easy to pronounce and very closely resembles the English word “rose.” From “rose” it is an easy leap to “pink.” In essence, if you are an English speaker you don’t really have to learn the word <<ροζ>>, you already know it by association. So, then the exercise focus is really one of letter / sound association.
2. Because you don’t have to work hard to learn the word <<ροζ>>, it makes it easier for your brain to build information about sentence structure. Through repetition, you become accustomed to the idea that color words precede nouns in Greek. Once other color words are learned, they can be substituted easily into the same structure.
3. The word <<ροζ>> is not declinable. In other words, the form of the word doesn’t change with the gender (or number) of the associated noun. With the color red for instance, you get <<το κόκκινο τραπέζι>>, <<ο κόκκινος ελέφαντας>> or <<η κόκκινη καρέκλα>>. With <<ροζ>>, it is just <<ροζ>> in each case. You get <<το ροζ τραπέζι>>, <<ο ροζ ελέφαντας>> and <<η ροζ καρέκλα>>. Learning that adjectives are declinable comes later when the learner is more advanced and ready for the topic.

Interestingly I think a close second choice could have been μπλε (blue). It sounds similar to “blue”, is easy to pronounce and doesn’t decline. The one drawback of this for English speakers is the pronunciation of the letter combo <<μπ>>. So, pink for the win!

What do you think? Leave a comment below.