French language Q&A Forum

I understand that "pêche" can be used as an adjective (les robes pêche, le stylo pêche, etc.) and that it's invariable (as are marron and orange). I am confused as to whether it would be "LA pêche est ma couleur préférée." or "LE pêche est ma couleur préférée."  I was taught that when colors are used as nouns (rather than adjectives) they are always masculine. I've found examples in dictionaries that show it as both, but I'd like to be able to tell someone definitively how to say it. The way I'm seeing it most frequently is 'la couleur pêche'. Can it be referred to as 'la pêche' (thereby breaking the "all masculine" rule)?  Le marron and l'orange don't help much...

Thank you very much!

Bonnie Christianson

I keep messing up on the possession concept. The lesson covers possession using proper names, but does not mention rule for non-proper noun, example, the girl's pen (unless I missed something). The correct way is apparently the pen of the girl, le stylo de la fille, and not le stylo de fille. Can you add a note to the lesson to accentuate this, such as found on Lawless site, https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/possessive-de/

For example if you were to say 'I like carrots', can't you say j'aime des carottes as well as j'aime les carottes ?

Or do they mean different things?

As they basically mean the same thing in this context.

In the sentence, encountered in a novel:

Il ouvrait un petit bar, y prenait une bouteille et deux verres.

Why "y"?  This seems to be a perfect example of "de plus location", as he is taking the bottle from a place.

Can someone elucidate, please"

Much obliged!

I have just run across this sentence in my reading, and I don't understand how/why the adverbial pronoun is used:

The introductory sentence is part of a conversation: 

-Vous ignorez qu'il est le propriétaire des parfums et des produits de beauté Mylène?

This is followed by the following sentence, which is the author's omnipotent observation about how little Maigret knew about perfumes:  

Il s'y connaissait si peu en produits de beauté! 

I understand what is being communicated, but I don't understand the grammar!

Please explain why the "s'y" construction is in this sentence.  

Merci!

Is effrayer no approproiate in place of faire peur

Although this was an exercise about using "devoir", I didn't understand how it expressed "to be late," which was son train a eu du retard Shouldn't it be "de retard" not "du retard?"

I believe the je form of the conditional of préférer is je préférerais, not je préfèrerais as in the text. Am I correct ?