German Colours (Farben) and Adjectives
After this lesson you can describe what something looks like.
German Colours (Farben) and Adjectives
Colours are the first adjectives worth having. The rule is simple at this level: after the verb an adjective takes nothing, in front of a noun it takes an ending.
Watch · 0%
Kulturnotiz
German builds shades by simply gluing hell (light) or dunkel (dark) onto the colour: hellblau, dunkelgrün, hellgrau. Note also that Switzerland abolished the letter ß entirely — Swiss German writing uses weiss, gross, Strasse. If you are learning for Zurich rather than Berlin, that is one keyboard problem you will never have.
Common questions
+When does a colour take an ending?
Only when it stands in front of the noun it describes: der rote Apfel. After the verb — Der Apfel ist rot — it never changes.
+How do I say light blue or dark green?
Stick hell or dunkel on the front as one word: hellblau, dunkelgrün, hellgrau. German compounds freely, and these are written without a space or hyphen.
+Why is it weiß and not weiss?
ß is used after long vowels and diphthongs in Germany and Austria. Switzerland dropped the letter, so Swiss texts write weiss. Both are correct in their own country.
+How do I ask what colour something is?
Welche Farbe hat …? — literally "what colour does it have". German treats colour as something a thing possesses, so the verb is haben, not sein.