Colors & Shapes in German

Die Farbe means colors in German, mostly used as adjectives, for example: a red ball, a blue sky, and so on. But adjectives such as colors, are often also have nominal forms or are combined with other words to form new nouns and even verbs. The colors and shapes vocabularies are tested in the Goethe A1 exam. (Also read: Geothe Zertifikat German A1 exam)

Colors in German nouns

Let’s look at how die Farbe (colors) are used as nouns, and the German colors are all neuter (das).

Die FarbeThe colors
das Blaublue
das Braunbrown
das Gelbyellow
das Graugrey
das Grüngreen
das Rotred
das Schwarzblack
das Weißwhite
das Beigebeige
das Indigoblauindigo
das Lilalilac, purple
das Orangeorange
das Rosapink
das Türkisturquoise
das Silbernsilver
das Goldengold

Examples of how German colors can be used in the noun forms.

  • Das Braun steht dir nicht.
  • Brown doesn’t look good on you.

Shapes in German

Here are basic geometric shapes in German. The German shapes are relatively easier to remember than those of English.

die FormenThe shapes
der Sternstar
der Kreiscircle
das Ovaloval
das Herzheart
der Würfelcube
die Kugelsphere
der Kegelcone
die Rauterhombus
der Zylindercylinder
das Rechteckrectangle
das Dreiecktriangle
das Viereck/Quadratsquare
das Fünfeckpentagon
das Sechseckhexagon
das Siebeneckheptagon
das Achteckoctagon

Example:

  • Welche Form hat ein Teller?
  • Kreis

German colors as adjectives

When German colors begin with a lowercase, they function as adjectives (Note: All nouns in German begin with an uppercase).

The colors as adjectives decline, meaning they must agree with the gender, number of the noun.

Example:

  • ein roter Pullover
  • einen roten Pullover

German Colors with prefixes

Colors in German can be modified by two important prefixes: dunkel- (dark) and hell- (bright, light):

  • dunkelblau (dark blue)
  • dunkelbraun (dark brown)
  • hellblau (bright blue)
  • hellgelb (bright yellow)

Check out German Numbers Pronunciation.

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