Ch 4 · Lesson 12French · Chapter 4 · Lesson 12 · Grammar primer
Colours: rouge, bleu, vert
Eleven colours, where they go (after the noun: ) and how they agree - plus orange and , which never change.
The short version
Colours go after the noun, and orange never changes
,
Why?Hide
Colours follow the noun and agree like any adjective: , . Orange and began as nouns (the fruit, the chestnut), so they never change, not even in the plural: .
Colours
A French adjective agrees with its noun: it changes its ending to match the noun's gender (masculine or feminine) and number (one or more). Colours are adjectives, so they agree too, and they go after the noun: , a red car.
Every colour comes after its noun. The feminine maison takes blanche, the masculine chien blanc.
| Colour | Masc. | Fem. | Fem. pl. |
|---|---|---|---|
| black | | | |
| green | | | |
| grey | | | |
| blue | | | |
| white | | | |
| purple | | | |
| red | | | |
| yellow | | | |
| pink | | | |
| orange | | | |
| brown | | | |
Most colours add -e and -s: , , . and are the irregular ones: (a white dress).
, and already end in -e, so the feminine looks the same; they still add -s in the plural: (pink dresses).
and never change, because they began as nouns (an orange, a chestnut): , . began as a noun too, but it agrees like an ordinary adjective: . A colour with a second word never changes either: (a light blue dress).
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