How do you identify something in French if you don't know what it's called?

Use an adjective as a noun to identify something you're referring to if you don't know what it's called, then put le, la, or les before that adjective (similar to the English way).

For example, you want to mention a yellow pencil but don't know how to say "pencil" in French. Instead of saying "le crayon jaune," refer to it by its color: le jaune.

Just remember to use the correct article. Use le for a masculine item, la for a feminine item, and les for more than one item.

Also, remember to make appropriate changes to the adjective to match the item also by gender and quantity.

More examples:

• le bleu - the blue one (masculine)
• les vertes - the green ones (feminine)