--- title: Colours — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Colours», a lesson of the french course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: French colours sit behind the thing they describe, so a red ball is un ballon rouge, "a ball red", like a label stuck on after the name. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/9-colours/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [French](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/) / Colours # Colours Lesson 9 of the french course of Mova's primary school: 17 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/french/9-colours/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/9-colours/0/) — French colours sit behind the thing they describe, so a red ball is un ballon rouge, "a ball red", like a label stuck on after the name. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/9-colours/1/) — Colours also change their spelling to match the thing: a green jumper is un pull vert, but a green skirt is une jupe verte, because jupe is a feminine word. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/9-colours/3/) — Some colours never change: those already ending in e, like rouge and jaune, keep the same form, and marron and orange, named after a chestnut and a fruit, never change at all. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/9-colours/4/) — Hair has its own words: a girl with dark hair is brune, and ginger hair is roux or rousse, never rouge. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/9-colours/5/) — The French flag is bleu, blanc, rouge ("BLUH, BLAHN, ROOZH"): blue, white, red, in that order from the flagpole. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/9-colours/6/) — Colour words come after the noun in French: un ballon rouge (a red ball), un chat noir (a black cat), une voiture bleue (a blue car). - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/9-colours/7/) — With a feminine noun most colours add -e: vert becomes verte, and then the t is said: un pull vert ("VAIR"), une jupe verte ("VAIRT"). - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/9-colours/8/) — bleu means blue and is said "BLUH" with rounded lips, not "bloo"; bleue sounds the same. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/9-colours/9/) — A few colours change more: blanc ("BLAHN") becomes blanche ("BLAHNSH"), and violet becomes violette. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/9-colours/10/) — marron (brown) and orange never change, not even in the plural: des chaussures marron (brown shoes). - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/9-colours/11/) — jaune ("ZHOHN") means yellow; it already ends in e, so it is the same with un and une: un ballon jaune, une fleur jaune. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/9-colours/12/) — For hair: brun / brune means dark-haired, blond / blonde means blond, roux / rousse means ginger; cheveux rouges would mean hair dyed bright red. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/9-colours/13/) — rose ("ROZ") means pink and is also the flower une rose; as a colour it takes an s in the plural: des tee-shirts roses. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/9-colours/14/) — gris ("GREE") means grey, not green; the s is silent; with a feminine noun it is grise ("GREEZ"); green is vert. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/9-colours/15/) — rouge means red and already ends in e: une pomme rouge, un camion rouge. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/9-colours/16/) — noir is the masculine and noire the feminine; both sound "NWAR": un chien noir, une souris noire. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/9-colours/17/) — Slang here: "posh" (UK) means fancy; "like" at the end (Yorkshire) adds a shrug; "whit" (Scotland) means what; "gonna" means going to; "loses it" means laughs a lot; "eh" (Canada) asks you to agree; "sweet as" (New Zealand) means great; "wee" (Scotland) means small. - ← previous: [Numbers 70 to 100: soixante-dix and quatre-vingts](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/8-numbers-70-to-100-soixante-dix-and-quatre-vingts/) - next →: [Days of the week and months](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/10-days-of-the-week-and-months/) - ↑ back to [French](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/)