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I wanted to ask my friend what color his car is. It seems to me that there are two sentences for that. "what color is the car? "or "what is the color of the car?" Which one is correct? If both of them are correct, which one makes more sense to a native English speaker?

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  • If you don't capitalize the first word of a sentence, such as what, you are making a spelling error. As far as grammar, they are both grammatical. Neither one makes more sense.
    – Alan Carmack
    Commented Jul 5, 2016 at 8:37
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    I can assure you, there are more than just two sentences for that: "What's your car's color?" "What color is your car?" "What color is your car painted?" What light frequencies in the color spectrum does your car reflect?" (I wouldn't recommend that last one, but I wanted to emphasize how there are usually more than just one or two ways to say something in English.)
    – J.R. ♦
    Commented Jul 5, 2016 at 8:38

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They are both correct.

The difference is the second one demonstrates the asker is interested specifically in the color of the car as more important then other characteristics. For example, if you car is stolen, the officier will ask "What is the color of the car?" since that is it's most identifying characteristic when looking for it.

If you are buying a car, you would ask "What color is the car? How big is the engine? Are the seats leather?" when color is one of many things you're interested in.

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Both sentences are completely correct, and both sentences completely make sense. The sentence "What color is the car?" is probably a little bit better, because it's a little bit shorter.

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  • Yes. Both are correct and valid. Native speakers generally ask "What color is the car?" -- that's the more idiomatic and common.
    – Jay
    Commented Jul 5, 2016 at 13:20
  • @Tanner Swett Can the answer to the question "What colour dress is your favourite?" be: "My favourite colour dress is red." Or should it be: "My favourite colour of (maybe I'd better use "for"?) the (maybe there should be the article "a" here?) dress is red". Or should I have asked: "What's your favourite colour for a dress/of dress". Thank you.
    – Eugene
    Commented Mar 1 at 11:45

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