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Colours in French
Here’s a quick guide to using (and pronouncing) colours in French
Quelle est ta couleur préférée?
What is your favourite colour?
Colours are very useful words to learn in any language. Most of the time, they’re used to describe things, which means they’re adjectives. Before I go on, let’s have a look at the colours in French (you can click the colour to be taken to “Forvo”, a site that shows you how to pronounce the word):
LES COULEURS — the colours
violet(te) — purple
marron — brown
rose — pink
bleu(e) — blue
vert(e) — green
rouge — red
orange — orange
noir(e) — black
jaune — yellow
blanc(he) — white
gris(e) — grey
You might have noticed that some of the colours have letters in brackets after them. That’s because, as I said, colours are adjectives, and adjectives have feminine forms (well, some of them do). If you use any of the colours above to describe a masculine noun, you just use the colour as it is. However, if you use the colour to describe a feminine noun, you have to add the letters that are in the brackets. Have a look at these examples:
le manteau blanc — the white coat
la voiture blanche — the white car
le chat noir — the black cat
la souris noire — the black mouse
Light green or dark green?
There are two extra words you can add to the end of any of the colours to describe them in a little more detail.
… clair — light …
… foncé — dark …
You can just put them on the end of any colour:
bleu clair — light blue
bleu foncé — dark blue
Merci :-)
To learn how to speak French, you can sign up to my course “3 Minute French” here (use the code WELCOME for a discount on checkout)
