What Are the Basic Colours in French?

Let’s take a look at the names of some colours in French.

Watch the video as many times as you need, until you feel you can give the French as the video plays!

Now we can see what we’ve learned. Look at the English and see if you can provide the French! We’ll take them in groups of five.

Part 1:

black	Show noir
blue	Show bleu
brown	Show marron
green	Show vert
grey	Show gris

Part 2:

orange	Show orange
pink	Show rose
red	Show rouge
white	Show blanc
yellow	Show jaune

Notes on Usage

The words in this list are all adjectives. Adjectives are a category of words that are used to describe things. They provide more information about a noun.

For example, if we take an English noun, such as ‘the coat,’ we can add an adjective, such as a colour, to describe our coat. So we might say, ‘the red coat,’ to distinguish it from ‘the blue coat.’

Notice that in English we place the adjective before the noun. But in French, the adjective is often after the noun, so ‘the red coat’ would be le manteau rouge.

Adjectives may also change in French according to the gender of the noun, so there might be masculine and feminine versions of adjectives.

Let’s look at some examples, using le manteau, which is a masculine noun, and la veste, ‘jacket,’ which is feminine.

The most likely adaptation is to add an ‘-e’ to the end of the adjective, as follows:

Masculine	Feminine
le manteau noir the black coat	la veste noire the black jacket
le manteau bleu the blue coat	la veste bleue the blue jacket
le manteau vert the green coat	la veste verte the green jacket

However, if the adjective already ends in an ‘-e,’ then the adjective remains unchanged.

Masculine	Feminine
le manteau rouge the red coat	la veste rouge the red jacket
le manteau jaune the yellow coat	la veste jaune the yellow jacket
le manteau rose the pink coat	la veste rose the pink jacket

Some adjectives are simply irregular and have to be learned on a case by case basis. In this list, ‘white’ is an irregular adjective in French.

Masculine	Feminine
le manteau blanc the white coat	la veste blanche the white jacket

And if the noun is plural, the adjective will take a plural form as well, which is usually an ‘-s.’

Masculine Plural	Feminine Plural
les manteaux noirs the black coats	les vestes noires the black jackets
les manteaux bleus the blue coats	les vestes bleues the blue jackets
les manteaux rouges the red coats	les vestes rouges the red jackets

Some adjectives don’t change at all under any circumstances. In this list, that is true of the word ‘marron.’

Masc.	Fem.	Pl.
le manteau marron the brown coat	la veste marron the brown jacket	les vestes marron the brown jackets

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