Colour order

WendyC1Kwiziq community member

Colour order

Why does yellow come before blue even though they are the opposite way round in the English text?

Asked 3 years ago
CécileKwiziq team memberCorrect answer

Hi Wendy,

Both

bleu et jaune

and 

jaune et bleu

are accepted in the exercise so take your pick, it is often a matter of preference.

MaartenC1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

I doubt that you will find a grammatical reason, and there may be no real reasoning behind it in this instance. However, I think in French «jaune et bleu» sounds better when spoken than «bleu et jaune», because it avoids the vowel-vowel combination of «bleu et . . », and a French speaker may therefore naturally say and write it that way, regardless of the order of the words in English.

Colour order

Why does yellow come before blue even though they are the opposite way round in the English text?

Sign in to submit your answer

Don't have an account yet? Join today

Ask a question

Find your French level for FREE

Test your French to the CEFR standard

Find your French level
Getting that for you now...