Clothes and Colors

Hook

What are you wearing today? Your friend is waiting for you at a busy station: “I’m wearing a red jacket and a black hat.” Clothes and colours help people find you, and they are useful when you shop too.

Notice

  • She’s wearing a red dress and black shoes.
  • He’s wearing blue jeans and a white T-shirt.
  • I like your green jacket!
  • These trousers are too long.
  • My favourite colour is purple.

What comes first: the colour or the clothes?

Rule

ClothesColours
a shirt · a T-shirt · a jumper / sweater · a jacket · a coat · a dress · a skirt · a hat · a scarf · a suit
trousers (US: pants) · jeans · shorts · shoes · trainers · boots · socks · glasses		red · orange · yellow · green · blue · purple · pink · brown · black · white · grey
light blue · dark green
  • wear for clothes: I usually wear jeans. Today I’m wearing a suit.
  • Colour before the noun: a red shirt (not a shirt red).
  • Always plural: trousers, jeans, shorts, glasses → These jeans are new. Where are my glasses? For one: a pair of jeans.

Watch Out

  • ✗ a shirt blue → ✓ a blue shirt (colour first)
  • ✗ This jeans is new. → ✓ These jeans are new. (jeans is plural)
  • ✗ I’m carrying a red dress. → ✓ I’m wearing a red dress. (wear clothes)
  • ✗ blues shoes → ✓ blue shoes (colours are never plural)

Practice

  1. Put in order: dress / red / a
  2. Complete: He is ___ a black jacket.
  3. is or are? These trousers ___ new.
  4. Name three colours.
  5. Name three clothes for cold weather.
  6. Correct it: “She has a skirt yellow.”
  7. One pair = ___ ___ ___ jeans
  8. Describe what you’re wearing today in one sentence.
Show the answers
  1. a red dress
  2. wearing
  3. are
  4. red, blue, green… (any three)
  5. coat, jumper, scarf, boots, hat (any three)
  6. She has a yellow skirt.
  7. a pair of
  8. I’m wearing… (for example: a blue shirt and black trousers)

Your Turn

Describe what you are wearing today, what you usually wear to work or school, and your favourite piece of clothing (and its colour).

Connect

Check clothes and colour words in our Vocabulary Quiz (A1).

Try our Vocabulary Quiz →

Our Hangman game is a fun way to practise spelling clothes words like trousers.

Play Hangman →

CEFR A1 — Spoken Production: I can name everyday clothes and colours and describe what people are wearing.

Azizul Hakim
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Printable worksheet (PDF) Pro

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