German Colours: rot, blau, grün and Welche Farbe hat...?

Q: What are the colours in German?

The basic twelve are rot (red), blau (blue), grün (green), gelb (yellow), schwarz (black), weiß (white), grau (grey), braun (brown), rosa (pink), lila (purple), orange (orange) and bunt (colourful). Each is an adjective, so it is written small: Das Auto ist blau.

Q: How do you ask what colour something is in German?

Say Welche Farbe hat...?, literally which colour has...? So Welche Farbe hat das Auto? is what colour is the car? The answer uses ist: Es ist rot. (It's red.)

Q: Do German colours change their ending?

Not after ist or sind: Die Tür ist grün, Die Autos sind grün. In front of a noun they do: ein rotes Auto, die blaue Tür. Those endings are the adjective endings, an A2 topic; until then, put the colour after ist.

Q: How do you say light blue and dark blue in German?

Put hell (light) or dunkel (dark) on the front, as one word with no hyphen: hellblau, dunkelblau, hellgrün, dunkelrot. They behave exactly like the plain colour: Das Auto ist dunkelblau.

By Michael McGettrickUpdated 11 October 2026

German colours are adjectives, and the first good news in German grammar: after a colour never changes. , , . To ask, German says what colour a thing has: ?

Quick check

Three quick questions on what you have just read. The full practice is further down.

Spot the mistake

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The whole system on one screen

masculinefeminineneuterthe ending before a nounWhat do the colours mean?

You want to say	German	English
a colour	`.`	The car is red.
the question	`?`	What colour is the car?
the answer	`.`	It red.
light, dark	`hellblau`, `dunkelblau`	light blue, dark blue
before a noun		a red car
the colour name	`.`	I like red.

Every row below is one line of that table, taken apart.

The twelve colours

Learn them with a sentence, not a list. Each one sits after in its plain dictionary form.

German	English	Example
	red	`.`
	blue	`.`
	green	`.`
	yellow	`.`
	black	`.`
	white	`.`
	grey	`.`
	brown	`.`
	pink	`.`
	purple	`.`
	orange	`.`
	colourful	`.`

red
blue
green
yellow
black
white
grey
brown
pink
purple
orange

One spelling and one sound to watch. has the ß in Germany and Austria; Switzerland, which does not use ß, writes . And keeps a French-style sound, roughly o-RONG-zhuh, often clipped to o-RONSH in everyday speech.

After ist: no ending, ever

The colour after or is the bare form, whatever the noun's gender and however many there are:

. - The dog is brown.
. - The cat is brown.
. - The car is brown.
. - The cars are brown.

Four nouns, four genders and numbers, one word. That makes colours the easiest adjectives in the language to use on day one.

Welche Farbe hat...?

is colour. The question uses , not : German asks which colour a thing has.

? - What colour is the car?
? - What colour is the door?
Lieblingsfarbe? - What's your favourite colour?
Lieblingsfarbe . - My favourite colour is green.

? copies the English pattern. You will hear it in casual speech, but is the standard question and the one to learn.

Er, sie or es: the noun decides

When you answer with it, German picks the pronoun by the noun's gender, not by whether it is alive. The colour of the pronoun matches the colour of the article.

The thing	Answer	English
	`.`	It brown.
	`.`	It blue.
	`.`	It green.
	`.`	It red.

So ? . but ? . Calling everything is the commonest slip here; German personal pronouns has the full set.

Light and dark: hell- and dunkel-

(light) and (dark) join the colour to make one word, small and with no hyphen:

hellblau - light blue

German	English	Example
`hellblau`	light blue	`hellblau.`
`dunkelblau`	dark blue	`dunkelblau.`
`hellgrün`	light green	`hellgrün.`
`dunkelrot`	dark red	`dunkelrot.`

They behave exactly like the plain colour: no ending after .

In front of a noun: an ending appears

Move the colour in front of the noun and it takes an ending. Compare:

After ist	Before the noun	English
`.`		the red house
`.`		the blue door
`.`		a red car

Four panels: a white house with a lilac roof and a blue door; a white dog with grey ears and a blue collar; a black cat with yellow eyes; a red car.

Which ending, and why, is the subject of German adjective endings, an A2 topic. For now, learn these three as set phrases, or put the colour after . and stay bare even here in careful German: - a pink dress.

The colour as a noun

The name of the colour itself is a noun, so it takes a capital:

. - I like red.
. - Blue is nice.
- the colour green

As an adjective it is small again: .

Mistakes English speakers make

Wrong	Right	Why
`.`	`.`	no ending after
`?`	`?`	colour asks
`? .`	`? .`	die is feminine:
	`hellblau`	one word
`.`	`.`	the colour name is a noun

What to do next

Name the colour of five things in the room: .
Ask and answer once with each pronoun: ..., ..., ...
Come back for adjective endings when starts to feel like a pattern.

Practise: test yourself

Matching

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Match each colour to its English.