Using French colors to describe animals

Noir Pronounced nwar

Blanc Pronounced bla~ The “c” is silent

Gris Pronounced gree The “s” is silent

Bleu Pronouned more “guttural” than English Think of bleu cheese

Rouge Pronounced rew-zh Moulin Rouge Baton Rouge

Jaune Pronounced zhohn Liver illness: jaundice

Vert Pronounced ver “t” is silent

Violet Pronounced vee-oh-lay “t” is silent

Rose La panthère est rose.

Brun

Marron A darker brown than “brun”

Orange Pronounced oh-ra~zh

Masculine & Feminine Do you notice anything special about all these words? Le chat Le perroquet Le poisson Le serpent Le crapaud Le papillon Le cheval Le lézard

Some animal names are feminine La colombe La grenouille La pieuvre La souris La girafe La fourmi La coccinelle

Do all words use Le and La ? All nouns have to have an article in French Nouns that begin with a vowel (or a silent “h”) don’t use Le or La L’ours L’oiseau L’écureuil L’éléphant L’abeille

What part of speech are colors? Sometimes colors can be nouns Blue is my favorite color. I choose red! Most of the time, colors are adjectives What makes a word an adjective? In English adjectives come before the noun: The blue bird In English, nouns are neither feminine nor masculine In English, adjectives only have one form, nothing about them changes

Adjectives in French In French, all nouns are either masculine or feminine Since adjectives describe nouns, they also have masculine and feminine forms In French, the adjective comes after the noun: L’oiseau bleu The adjective has to agree with the noun’s gender (masculine/feminine)

Examples of adjective agreement Masculin L’oiseau bleu Le cheval brun Le lézard vert L’ours noir Le chat blanc Féminin La pieuvre bleue La fourmi brune La grenouille verte L’abeille noire et jaune La souris blanche

Colors that change forms NoirNoire BlancBlanche VertVerte BleuBleue GrisGrise VioletViolette BrunBrune

Colors that don’t change Orange Marron Rouge Rose Pourpre Jaune

Exercises How would you write these in French? 1.The white horse 2.The blue butterfly 3.The gray octopus 4.The yellow lizard 5.The green toad 6.The black frog 7.The red parrot 8.The orange cat