The Colors in French: Pronunciation and Expressions

Interested in discussing the colorful world around you—in French?

Mastering the colors in French and the vocabulary used to describe them will enable you to express a variety of feelings and experiences, while also learning more about French culture.

In this post, I’ll cover the words for colors in French, along with the most frequent ways you'll come across them in your vibrant French-speaking life.

1. Rose — Pink

The color adjective rose in French means “pink,” not the deeper crimson shade English speakers often imagine with the word “rose.”

As a noun, however, une rose refers to the same flower as in English.

Note that the pronunciation of rose is different from the wine name, vin rosé, where the final letter is pronounced.

Be aware that rose as an adjective can also refer to erotic content, so a téléphone rose is not a pink telephone, but a phone service for… adult topics.

2. Orange — Orange

This color, like in English, is also the name of the fruit. You can enjoy jus d’orange (orange juice) at breakfast as well as marmelade d’orange (orange marmalade).

Variations include orange brûlé (burnt orange) and the more general orangé (orangey). Note: orange is an invariable adjective, while orangé is not.

What is called a yellow stoplight in some places is considered orange in France: feu orange.

3. Rouge — Red

Red has many uses and associations in English, and it's no different in French.

Rouge is the color associated with communists and can function as a noun for such a person or an adjective for a related viewpoint.

Casual wine drinkers like myself might simply order un verre de rouge (a glass of red) in a French bar, indicating we aren't particular about whether it's from Bourgogne, Bordeaux, or elsewhere.

Here are a few other straightforward parallels to English:

• la Croix-Rouge — the Red Cross

• être dans le rouge — to be in the red (financially)

• chou rouge — red cabbage

• alerte rouge — red alert

• le tapis rouge — the red carpet

The verb rougir means to turn red, including to blush.

4. Jaune — Yellow

One significant use of jaune is in Le Tour de France; the race leader wears the maillot jaune, or yellow jersey.

Un jaune d’œuf (literally, yellow of egg) is an egg yolk.

As a noun, jaune can be an offensive term for an Asian person, and it also means a strikebreaker.

5. Vert — Green

Like its English equivalent, vert carries various symbolic meanings and is useful in many contexts.

Here’s a brief list of common uses:

• le fruit est encore vert — the fruit isn’t ripe yet

• une politique verte — a green/ecological policy

• manger du vert — to eat greens (vegetables)

• avoir le feu vert — to have the go-ahead/green light

• être vert — to be dejected

• le Parti Vert / Les Verts — the Green Party

• un citron vert — a lime (these are less common and can be harder to find in France compared to lemons, les citrons)

• numéro vert — a toll-free number

6. Bleu — Blue

Besides denoting a color, bleu has some interesting colloquial uses. Notably, un bleu is what you might get after a punch (a bruise).

Les Bleus refers to French national sports teams, like the soccer team.

You can also request un steak bleu, meaning the meat is very lightly seared.

And if you're inexperienced, you're not called green as in English, but rather un bleu.

7 . Violet — Purple

Be careful not to mix this up with pourpre (see below); they are not synonyms in French.

From a French perspective, skin that is very cold turns violet rather than blue.

8. Pourpre — Reddish Purple

There's some discussion about whether language influences color perception, but in any case, you should know that reddish purple, or pourpre, is its own category in French. Cramoisi, or crimson, is a purplish red.

The French eye differentiates pourpre from violet, which is more bluish; the latter is closer to what English speakers generally call purple. You can see an example of pourpre here.

9. Noir — Black

Beyond describing color, noir can be a noun for a black person. Un noir means a black man and une noire is a black woman.

The handy phrase noir de monde simply means “crowded.”

As an adjective, noir can also mean “gloomy”; this might make the term film noir clearer.

10. Blanc — White

As a noun, blanc can refer to a white person or a white wine. So le blanc boit un blanc (though it sounds a bit odd) could mean “the white man is drinking a white wine.”

The noun also means “blank”; for instance, laisser un blanc is to leave a blank space in a document. And, écrit en noir et blanc means the same as in English: written in black and white.

11. Gris — Gray

In addition to its role as a color, gris can describe the weather, especially in regions like Brittany or Paris: il fait gris (it is overcast/gloomy).

When describing a person, as in Mathilde est un peu grise, it means Mathilde is a bit tipsy.

12. Marron — Brown

This shade of brown in French is often used for a lighter brown eye color. It's also the common term for many brown objects.

As a noun, marron means chestnuts, and you might hear “Chaud, les marrons!” as a warning to be careful.

This charming French idiom dates back to when vendors sold roasted nuts on the street and would call out to attract customers.

Brun is a darker brown, typically used for hair or skin color.

French Colors and Grammar

To use French colors properly, it's essential to know the grammatical rules that apply to them.

As nouns, French colors are always masculine, but they are most often used as adjectives. Like all adjectives, most French colors must agree with the gender and number of the noun they modify.

Many colors add an e for feminine nouns and an s for plural nouns.

There are exceptions, such as marron and orange, which remain the same regardless of gender or number. Some colors, like jaune and rouge, already end in e and do not change for gender.

Here is a table with the colors we’ve discussed and their forms for gender and number.

Using Colors in French

I hope this has offered you a glimpse into the colorful world seen through French eyes. There's a lot to absorb, and as we've seen, these color words allow us to experience the world differently in French, in both fundamental and playful ways.

The next step is to start using these color words! The French Your Way podcast has an excellent episode on various French expressions that use colors.

You can also hear the correct pronunciation of various color words in context with the Lingflix language learning program. Lingflix uses authentic videos—such as music videos, movie trailers, news, and inspiring talks—and transforms them into personalized language lessons. You can try Lingflix for free for 2 weeks. Visit the website or download the iOS app or Android app. P.S. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)

With any luck, you'll soon be incorporating this vocabulary into your own communication, thinking about and living in the colorful world it describes!