Color adjectives in French are essential for description, but they behave differently than their English counterparts. Several — rouge, jaune, and orange — are invariable, keeping the same form for both masculine and feminine nouns. Others add a final -e in the feminine: bleu becomes bleue (le ciel bleu, "the blue sky"), vert becomes verte (une feuille verte, "a green leaf"), and violet becomes violette (une fleur violette, "a purple flower"). A few follow more distinctive patterns: blanc takes the form blanche in the feminine (la neige blanche, "the white snow"), and noir similarly becomes noire (un chat noir, "a black cat").
French uses several families of articles to mark nouns. The definite articles — corresponding to English "the" — are le for masculine singular nouns (le livre, "the book"), la for feminine singular nouns (la maison, "the house"), and les for all plural nouns regardless of gender (les enfants, "the children"). Both le and la contract to l' when the next word begins with a vowel or a mute h, as in l'eau.
The indefinite articles — corresponding to English "a" or "one" — are un for masculine singular (un garçon, "a boy"), une for feminine singular (une fille, "a girl"), and des for plurals (des livres, "some books"). The partitive articles express quantities of something uncountable, equivalent to English "some." Du, a contraction of de + le, is used before masculine nouns (du pain, "some bread"), and de la is used before feminine nouns (de la musique, "some music"). When the following word begins with a vowel, the partitive becomes de l', as in de l'eau ("some water").