A vertical tricolour is three equal vertical bands. France's blue-white-red, adopted during the Revolution, became the model for republics and independence movements everywhere. Grouping the vertical tricolours by colour scheme makes them learnable and shows where the confusable pairs are.
Blue / white / red family
France (blue-white-red). Its near-copies with an added emblem: nothing exactly matches, but Chad and Romania (blue-yellow-red) and Andorra (blue-yellow-red with arms) are the same layout in different colours.
Green / white / orange (or the reverse)
- Ireland — green-white-orange, green on the hoist.
- Côte d'Ivoire — orange-white-green, orange on the hoist (the mirror of Ireland).
- India's tricolour is horizontal, not vertical — don't confuse it here.
Green / white / red
- Italy — green-white-red.
- Mexico — green-white-red with the national coat of arms (an eagle on a cactus) in the centre.
- Iran — green-white-red with the emblem and a stylised takbir border along the bands (technically horizontal in Iran's case — check: Iran's is horizontal). Nigeria is green-white-green, only two colours.
Blue / yellow / red
Chad, Romania, Andorra (with arms), and — from Gran Colombia, though those are horizontal — no vertical members there. Moldova is vertical blue-yellow-red with an eagle on the yellow band.
Pan-African vertical tricolours
- Mali — green-yellow-red.
- Guinea — red-yellow-green (the reverse of Mali).
- Senegal — green-yellow-red with a green star in the centre.
- Cameroon — green-red-yellow with a yellow star in the centre.
Other vertical tricolours
- Belgium — black-yellow-red.
- Nigeria — green-white-green (two colours, three bands).
- Peru — red-white-red (two colours).
- Canada — red-white-red with a maple leaf (two colours).
- Barbados — blue-yellow-blue with a black trident head (two colours).
The vertical tricolours are where most flag-quiz mistakes happen. Play Guess the Flag and drill the confusable colour groups.
Drill the tricolours →