All The Colours of The Rainbow

Spring is still a few weeks away

but at least up here in the hémisphère nord (northern hemisphere) and in the end of un janvier froid et gris (a cold and grey January), I know we can all use a little taste of spring to get us through.

En plus (And), so I got to thinking about all the colours of un arc-en-ciel (lit. an arc in the sky or a rainbow).

Les couleurs de l’arc-en-ciel sont (The colours of the rainbow are)

rouge / red

orange / orange

jaune / yellow

vert / green

bleu / blue

indigo / indigo

violet / violet (or purple)

Noir et Blanc (black and white) are not – scientifically speaking – colours, but they’re certainly useful words to know.

As are:

marron / brown

gris / grey

rose / pink

Les couleurs peuvent être (Colours can be)

clair / light

foncé / dark

vif / bright

pâle / pale

It is important to remember that colours are also adjectives. Most, like other adjectives in French, need to agree in gender and number with the nouns they modify, but it would be too easy if they all did! As is often the case, there are exceptions.

As a general rule:

Simple colours must agree:

(une voiture grise / a grey car; des livres rouges / red books; une souris verte / a green mouse)

Compound colours do not agree:

(des chaussures bleu pâle / light blue shoes; des crayons jaune citron / lemon yellow pencils)

Colours that are also nouns, do not agree:

(une chemise marron / a brown shirt; des chaises orange / orange chairs)!