Roses are rouges, violets are bleues. Rose and violet are both totally different colors in French, and you’ll learn those, too.
There are good reasons to learn the names of colors in French. Colors aren’t just a practical way to describe things. Learning French colors and the names for them will allow you to convey a number of other feelings and experiences, while discovering a bit more about French culture, too.
Probably the most famous example of this is the French expression voir la vie en rose, which literally means “to see life in pink.” The actual meaning, however, is more like the phrase “to look at life through rose-tinted glasses” or “to look on the sunny side of things.”
Let's start at the beginning with the word for “color,” la couleur, which is a feminine noun. Look at the following chart to see the names of colors in French. Then listen to how each word is pronounced. Try pronouncing each one yourself.
| blue | bleu | |
| white | blanc | |
| red | rouge | |
| yellow | jaune | |
| green | vert | |
| orange | orange | |
| brown | marron | |
| pink | rose | |
| black | noir | |
| gray | gris | |
| purple | violet | |
| silver | argent | |
| gold | doré | |
As a general rule, colors in French are masculine nouns:
For example:
le bleu
le rouge
le rose
Most of the time, though, colors are used as adjectives. In this case, they follow the French grammar rule of agreeing with the noun(s) they modify. This means that it’s not enough to know that blanc means “white”; if a noun is feminine, blanc becomes blanche.
| la table blanche | the white table |
If a noun is plural, blanc becomes blancs or blanche becomes blanches.
| les dossiers blancs | the white folders |
To make most French colors agree with a feminine noun, you just have to add an “e” to the end. For example, bleu becomes bleue.
| la montre bleue | the blue watch |
And colors that already end in “e” stay the same, whether the noun is masculine or feminine. (You still have to add an “s” to them if they are plural.)
There are two exceptions to these rules: orange (orange) and marron (brown) NEVER change form. Regardless of the gender or number of whatever they’re modifying, they stay the same.
Yasmine a deux chiennes marron et un chien blanc, et Sabrina a trois chiens marron et quatre chiennes noires. Yasmine has two brown dogs and one white dog, and Sabrina has three brown dogs and four black dogs.
French colors do follow one easy grammar rule, though: They always come after the noun(s) they modify.
| le chat orange | the orange cat |
| le chien noir | the black dog |
Which one?
Which one of these color words never changes form?
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