Colors in French

In this lesson you will learn to translate the colors in French. Do you ask yourself why this is important? For example learning adjectives which express colors you will be able to describe objects.

Colors in French and English

Below you will find a list of basic colors in French language. To ask a color of some object you can use a expression "De quelle couleur s´agit-il?", which means "What color is that?" or "Quelle est cette couleur?" = "What color is it?"

Examples:

• Ivana and Mario have brown eyes. = Ivana et Mario ont les yeux marrons.
• Marija has blue eyes. = Marija a les yeux bleus.

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Dark and light

If you want to accentuate that the color is light or dark, in French we just put the word dark (foncé) or light (clair) in front of the color.

In the following list you can find some examples:

Examples:

• This sofa is light red. = Ce sofa est rouge clair.
• Her bag is dark green. = Son sac est vert foncé.

Masculine and Feminine for colors in French

Colors are actually adjectives and in French you need to change the adjective in masculine/feminine or plural form only depending on the noun that it´s describing. For example if you want to say "White house," it´s "La maison blanche." or in plural "Des maisons blanches." To form a feminine form you add an -e to the masculine form.

Examples:

• She has a dark purple dress. = Elle a une robe violette foncée.
• The shirt is white. = La chemise est blanche.

Attention

There are two exceptions: purple in singular is violet, but in feminine form is violette, and white in feminine singular is blanche. 

Check the video for pronunciation of colors in French language: