"Jaké barvy byl ten automobil?"

Translation: What color was that car?

[deactivated user]

Is this plural or genitiv singular? For the colours I mean... And why?

[Rabs]

Exactly what I was wondering!

[kacenka9]

It is singular yes. I am not sure if i understand the "why" part :)

[FreakySam]

I have the same question. Why is it Jaké barvy and not Jaká barva?

[VladaFu]

Basically it is something like "OF what colour is that car?". Therefore genitive in Czech.

You could ask "Jaká barva je toto?" "What colour is this?" Then you are not asking what colour has an object but directly about a colour, which colour is this one.

[PritelBobka]

I think I get it. It's the difference between asking "What color is X" (essentially the same as "Of what color is X") where X is actually the subject in the nominative and the color is in the genitive. Contrasted with "What is the color of X" where the color is the subject and X is in the genitive.

[Niguel16]

How does "what kind of color was that car" not work?

[BrianSille2]

Is the word 'automobil' used in ordinary conversation rather than 'auto'? When I was young the term 'motor car' was in common use in English but is rarely heard now. Of course at that time one could often meet a horse drawn car on the road. There is a tendency in all languages to shorten words and terms if this is possible without creating ambiguity.

[VladaFu]

Automobil is mostly used in written official communication or in the news and it has been like that for many decades.

[BrianSille2]

Thank you