German Colours and Describing Things
After this lesson you can describe what something looks like.
Übungen
Eight exercises on what you just watched. Get 80% and the lesson is marked done and added to your A1 progress.
1 / 8 · Type the missing word
2 / 8 · Type the missing word
3 / 8 · Word order
Put the words in the right order.
The tomato is red.
4 / 8 · Word order
Put the words in the right order.
The sky is blue.
5 / 8 · Choose
What colour is rot?
6 / 8 · Choose
What colour is grün?
7 / 8 · Choose
What colour is gelb?
8 / 8 · Choose
What colour is schwarz?
In short
The nine core German colours are rot, blau, grün, gelb, schwarz, weiß, braun, grau and orange. After the verb they never change — "Die Tomate ist rot" — but in front of a noun they take an ending: "der rote Apfel".
How it works
Colours in German are used in two quite different ways, and only one of them involves any grammar. When the colour comes after the verb, describing the subject, it stays completely unchanged: Die Tomate ist rot. Der Himmel ist blau. Das Gras ist grün. No endings, no agreement, nothing to think about.
When the colour comes in front of the noun it is describing, it takes an ending. With a definite article the ending is -e: der rote Apfel, die blaue Tasche, das grüne Buch. This is your first taste of German adjective endings, a system that gets more elaborate later — but at A1 the pattern above covers most of what you need.
The practical takeaway is to prefer the first structure while you are starting out. Der Apfel ist rot says the same thing as der rote Apfel and asks nothing of you grammatically. Build the habit of describing things with ist, and add the pre-noun endings once the rest of the system is in place.
| German | English | Example |
|---|---|---|
| rot | red | Die Tomate ist rot. |
| gelb | yellow | Die Sonne ist gelb. |
| orange | orange | Die Orange ist orange. |
| blau | blue | Der Himmel ist blau. |
| grün | green | Das Gras ist grün. |
| grau | grey | Das Wetter ist grau. |
| schwarz | black | Die Nacht ist schwarz. |
| weiß | white | Der Schnee ist weiß. |
| braun | brown | Der Kaffee ist braun. |
| Position | Ending | Example |
|---|---|---|
| after ist / sind | none | Der Apfel ist rot. |
| before a der noun | -e | der rote Apfel |
| before a die noun | -e | die blaue Tasche |
| before a das noun | -e | das grüne Buch |
| before a plural noun | -en | die roten Äpfel |
Examples
- Die Tomate ist rot.The tomato is red.
- Der Himmel ist blau.The sky is blue.
- Das Gras ist grün.The grass is green.
- Der Schnee ist weiß.The snow is white.
- Der Kaffee ist braun.The coffee is brown.
- Ich möchte den roten Apfel.I would like the red apple.
- Die blaue Tasche gefällt mir.I like the blue bag.
- Das grüne Buch ist meins.The green book is mine.
- Welche Farbe hat dein Auto?What colour is your car?
- Mein Lieblingsfarbe ist grün.My favourite colour is green.
Mistakes to avoid
✗ der rot Apfel
✓ der rote Apfel
In front of a noun the colour needs its ending. Only after the verb does it stay bare.
✗ Der Apfel ist rote.
✓ Der Apfel ist rot.
The reverse error. After ist the adjective never takes an ending — adding one is a clear learner marker.
✗ weiss written carelessly
✓ weiß
The ß is correct after a long vowel. If you cannot type it, ss is the accepted substitute — but never in Switzerland, where ß is not used at all.
✗ Welche Farbe ist dein Auto?
✓ Welche Farbe hat dein Auto?
German asks what colour a thing *has*, not what colour it *is*. Farbe haben, not Farbe sein.
Wortschatz
The words from this lesson.
| die Farbe | colour | |
| die Lieblingsfarbe | favourite colour | |
| hell | light (in colour) | hellblau = light blue |
| dunkel | dark | dunkelgrün = dark green |
| der Himmel | sky | |
| der Schnee | snow | |
| das Gras | grass | |
| die Sonne | sun | |
| die Tasche | bag | |
| bunt | colourful, multicoloured |
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.