Les couleurs

What is it?

Colours are adjectives. They describe nouns. Because in French every noun has a gender, either masculine or feminine, adjectives have genders too. Usually, to have the feminine, we add a silent “e” to the masculine adjective, unless the masculine form of the adjective already has an “e” at the end.

Masculine	Feminine	English
Beige	Beige	Beige
Blanc	Blanche	White
Bleu	Bleue	Blue
Gris	Grise	Grey
Jaune	Jaune	Yellow
Marron	Marron	Brown
Noir	Noire	Black
Orange	Orange	Orange
Rose	Rose	Pink
Rouge	Rouge	Red
Vert	Verte	Green
Violet	Violette	Purple

Position in a sentence

Colours, like many other French adjectives, usually go after the noun they qualify, which is the opposite of the English rule.

For example:
Une table blanche → A white table.

Agreement rules

Feminine masculine

Colours are adjectives, so you must use the masculine form of the colour if the noun is masculine and its feminine form if it is feminine.  

For example:
Une fleur violette → A purple flower.
Un téléphone noir → A black telephone.

Plural

To turn the masculine and feminine forms of the colours into the plural, simply add a silent “s” at the end of the colour.
 

For example:
Des arbres verts → Green trees.
Des pommes vertes → Green apples.

Invariable colours

Some colours are invariable and will not change in the plural or in the singular form. This happens mainly when the colour is coming from fruits or others and exist as a noun in the language. In this case, the colour has the gender of the noun. In the list of colours seen, “marron” and “orange” follow this rule. “Un marron” is a “conker” and “une orange” is “an orange.” Of course, more colours follow this rule.

  For example:
Des chaussures marron → Brown shoes.
Des livres orange → Some orange books.

Simple tones

Tones can be added to the colour. In a sentence, the colour goes before the tone, which is the opposite of the English rule.

Foncé → Dark.
Clair → Light.

  For example:
Vert foncé → Dark green.
Orange clair → Light orange.

Compound adjectives

In French, when a colour, a tone, and a noun are used together, the noun goes first, followed by the colour and the tone. “Foncé” and “clair” do not change form when they are used with colours as we are then creating a compound adjective. The colour in this case stays in the singular masculine form regardless of the gender and numeral of the noun. In other words, it is impossible here to use the colour in its feminine or plural forms even if the noun is feminine and or plural.

For example:
Une robe vert foncé → A dark green dress.
Des chaussures bleu clair → Light blue shoes.