Colors in French

Colours come up everywhere — shopping, describing things, ordering. The French words are easy, and several you already half-know. The one thing English speakers need to learn is that colours, like other French adjectives, change to match the noun.

The everyday colors

The one rule: colours agree

French adjectives change their ending to match the noun's gender and number. Colours usually come after the noun, and they shift like this:

• Masculine: un sac vert (a green bag)
• Feminine (often add -e): une voiture verte (a green car)
• Plural (add -s): des sacs verts, des voitures vertes

Some colours are irregular: blanc → blanche, violet → violette. And a few never change at all — notably orange and marron stay the same: des chaussures marron.

Handy color phrases

• Quelle est ta couleur préférée ? — What's your favourite colour?
• Ma couleur préférée est le bleu. — My favourite colour is blue.
• De quelle couleur est… ? — What colour is… ?

Make them stick by saying them

Colours and their agreement settle in through use, not memorisation. Navoq has you describe real things out loud — clothes, objects, what you'd like to buy — with pronunciation feedback, so the right ending starts coming automatically.