tiene el pelo castaño
/tjene el pelo kastaɲo/from spelling rules
To say someone has brown hair in Spanish, use tiene el pelo castaño.
tiene el pelo castaño describes a person whose hair is brown. You can also say es castaño for a man to mean he is brown haired.
What does it mean word for word?
The phrase reads literally as he or she has the hair brown. pelo means hair and castaño is the color word used for brown hair.
Which one should you use?
marrón is the general word for brown, but castaño is the more natural choice for hair. tiene el pelo marrón is heard in informal speech. pelo is the everyday word for hair, while cabello sounds more formal.
How does it change in a sentence?
Spanish uses the definite article el before pelo where English uses no article. You can add a texture word too, such as Liso (straight), Ondulado (wavy) or Rizado (curly).
How do you pronounce it?
The ñ in castaño sounds like the ny in canyon.
What mistakes should you avoid?
English puts the color before the noun, but Spanish puts it after, so say el pelo castaño.
Did you know?
Examples in context
- Ella tiene cabello castaño.She has brown hair.
- Luis tiene pelo castaño oscuro y rizado.Luis has dark brown, curly hair.
- María posee cabello café claro y liso.María has light brown, straight hair.
- Mi hermano tiene el pelo castaño.My brother has brown hair.
- Ella tiene el pelo castaño y corto.She has short brown hair.
- ¿El actor tiene el pelo castaño?Does the actor have brown hair?
Example conversation
Elena and Javier are looking at photos of people at a party.
- ElenaMira a ese chico, tiene el pelo castaño.Look at that boy, he has brown hair.
- JavierSí, es el chico que me gusta.Yes, he is the boy I like.
- Elena¿Y su hermana tiene el pelo castaño también?And does his sister have brown hair too?
- JavierNo, ella tiene el pelo rubio.No, she has blonde hair.
Sources
- IPA marked “from spelling rules” is derived from standard Spanish spelling, where Wiktionary gives none.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries castaño, el, pelo, CC BY-SA 4.0.
