Colors in French: Complete Guide with List, Examples & Grammar
Colors in French
Colors in French, as in all languages, are used to express the color of people, animals and objects, they act as adjectives, for example, “The horse is brown”, “The white shirt”. And also, by themselves, they are nouns, for example, “The color red”, “I like yellow”. Colors also have grammar rules, such as the order of words in a sentence. This is explained in more detail here.
List of colors in French
Colors are a visual perception generated in the human brain and other animals by interpreting the nerve signals; they are a perception of a tone of light. (1) Below there is a list with all the colors in French.
| French | English |
| Blanc/Blanche | White |
| Noir/Noire | Black |
| Rouge | Red |
| Jaune | Yellow |
| Bleu | Blue |
| Vert/Verte | Green |
| Orange | Orange |
| Brun | Brown |
| Violet/Violette | Purple |
| Lilas | Lilac |
| Rose | Pink |
| Fuchsia | Fuchsia |
| Gris/ Grise | Gray |
| Moutarde | Mustard |
| Terre cuite | Terracotta |
| Turquoise | Turquoise |
| Doré/Dorée | Golden |
| Argent | Silver |
| Saumon | Skin color / Salmon color (Normally referring to a light tone) |
| Beige | Beige |
| Ambre | Amber |
| Citron vert | Lime |
| Vert menthe | Mint green |
| Vert pomme | Apple green |
Other related terms
| Combinaison | Combination |
| Peinture | Painting |
| Peindre | Paint |
| Crayons de couleur | Colored pencils |
| Claire | Light |
| Foncé | Dark |
| Couleurs primaires | Primary Colors |
| Couleurs secondaires | Secondary Colors |
| Couleurs tertiaires | Tertiary Colors |
| Bleuâtre | Bluish |
| Grisâtre | Grayish |
Grammar rules
Colors agree with gender and number with the noun they describe and follow an specific order in sentences.
Gender
The word “color” (couleur) is indeed feminine in French. When you talk about colors themselves, they are accompanied by the feminine articles “la” (the) and “une” (a, an) in French.
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Agreement in gender
In French, the general rule for agreement in gender is to add an -e to the end of the color when it is used to describe a feminine noun.
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b. The olors that end in -e and the color brown (marron) do not change regardless of whether they are used to describe a masculine or feminine noun.
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Agreement in number
The main rule for agreement in number with colors is to add an -s to the end of the color to make it plural. However, this rule only applies to certain cases and there are some exceptions.
For more information on this topic, it is recommended to read the lesson on plurals in French.
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Word order
The word order for colors in a sentence is generally after the nouns they describe and after the verb “être” (to be). The common word order for using colors in French is
- Verb “être” + color
- Nouns + color
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More examples or sentences
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Exercises
Transtle the following simple sentencesfrom English to French.
- The sky is blue.
- The book is green.
- The flower is yellow.
- The car is pink.
- A purple fruit.
- The shirt is black.
- The sun is brown.
- The wall is white.
- The door is green.
- The silver pen
Answers.
- Le ciel est bleu.
- Le livre est vert.
- La fleur est jaune.
- La voiture est rose.
- Un fruit violet.
- La chemise est noire.
- Le soleil est brun.
- Le mur est blanc.
- La porte est verte.
- Le stylo argenté.
