Thinking that I understood the rule,I stupidly wrote "Oui c'est bon," and of course got it wrong. My natural inclination was to put "oui, c'est bonne." But, I veered because of the rule. Obviously, I do not understand the rule. Would you please explain it more clearly? :o)
French adjectives of simple colours agree in gender and number with the noun they modify.
Here is the full agreement table:
| Masculine Singular | Feminine Singular | Masculine Plural | Feminine Plural | English |
| rouge | rouge | rouges | rouges | red |
| jaune | jaune | jaunes | jaunes | yellow |
| rose | rose | roses | roses | pink |
| bleu | bleue | bleus | bleues | blue |
| vert | verte | verts | vertes | green |
| gris | grise | gris | grises | grey |
| noir | noire | noirs | noires | black |
| violet | violette | violets | violettes | purple |
| blanc | blanche | blancs | blanches | white |
| brun | brune | bruns | brunes | dark brown |
| orange | orange |
orange |
orange |
orange |
| marron |
marron |
marron |
marron |
brown |
Note that colours ending in mute -e, such as jaune (yellow), rose (pink), rouge (red) and orange remain the same in the feminine.
ATTENTION:
Colours marron (brown/chestnut) and orange (orange) never change in any form, plural and/or feminine.
See the more advanced lesson Compound colour names and colour names derived from things are invariable
Case of brun
The colour brun is defined as a dark red going on black (Dictionnaire de l'Académie française).
In colloquial French, brun will mostly be used to describe hair, skin (as in tanned skin), or fur.
In other cases, we will use marron.
Here are examples to listen to:
Avec deux crayons violets elle dessine une robe violette.With two purple pencils she draws a purple dress.
See also Adjectives usually go AFTER nouns (adjective position)
Examples and resources
Q&A Forum 9 questions, 21 answers
WandaKwiziq community member
The rule that standalone adjectives after c'est must be in the masculine
Asked 3 months ago
Bonjour Wanda, you understood the rule: adjectives are *always* invariable after c'est. The problem is that you misread your answer results, please take another look at them: the green check is next to the correct answer, while the red x is next to your incorrect answer.
Wanda asked:View original
The rule that standalone adjectives after c'est must be in the masculine
Thinking that I understood the rule,I stupidly wrote "Oui c'est bon," and of course got it wrong. My natural inclination was to put "oui, c'est bonne." But, I veered because of the rule. Obviously, I do not understand the rule. Would you please explain it more clearly? :o)
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BrendaKwiziq community member
We are given a rule that brun is used for skin, hair, and fur. Yet example sentence uses ‘marron’ for dog and mouse. Pls advise. Merci!
Asked 9 months ago
Hi Brenda,
I think the examples you refer to were to illustrate how 'marron' doesn't change in gender or number as other colour adjectives.
As you will know by now, there are exceptions to all rules in French, personally, I have never heard of brun being used for dogs or mice...
Hope this helps!
Chris Kwiziq Q&A super contributor
Maybe this helps: https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-French-for-brown-Brun-ou-marron
Brenda asked:View original
We are given a rule that brun is used for skin, hair, and fur. Yet example sentence uses ‘marron’ for dog and mouse. Pls advise. Merci!
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JialiKwiziq community member
For colours such as 'bleu-vert', how would you agree them?
Asked 2 years ago
Hi Jiali,
Just to add to what Chris said, when a colour is followed by a noun or an adjective the same rule applies, but without the hyphen-
e.g.
Des blousons bleu marine = Navy blue jackets
Des cheveux châtain clair = Light brown hair
Hope this helps!
Chris Kwiziq Q&A super contributor
Hi Jiali,
if you use a color composed of two adjectives (such as in the example you give, or, e.g., bleu-clair, brun-foncé, etc.) neither of them changes. So you get off free!
Des chaussures bleu-vert. -- Blue-green shoes (no arguing about taste, please;).
-- Chris (not a native speaker).
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Hi Peter,
Correct observation, "marron" is immutable. Those colors which effectively are the name of other objects don't change. "Orange" is another example. There is a dedicated lesson for this.
-- Chris (not a native speaker).
Correct observation, "marron" is immutable. Those colors which effectively are the name of other objects don't change. "Orange" is another example. There is a dedicated lesson for this.
-- Chris (not a native speaker).
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AdamKwiziq community member
One tiny English typo: "I've got two brown dogs and one brown mice" should be "...one brown mouse".
Asked 2 years ago
Bonjour Adam !
Oops! Merci beaucoup !
J'ai maintenant corrigé cet exemple :)
Bonne journée !
Oops! Merci beaucoup !
J'ai maintenant corrigé cet exemple :)
Bonne journée !
Adam asked:View original
One tiny English typo: "I've got two brown dogs and one brown mice" should be "...one brown mouse".
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StuartKwiziq community member
Suzanne adore les vêtements oranges.
There is a question about this and my response (above) was incorrect. Is les vêtements an exception to adding the ‘s’ at the end to orange? I couldn’t see the exception in the discussion. Thanks.
Asked 2 years ago
Bonjour Stuart,
Here is an example from the lesson:
Elle a un sac orange et deux écharpes orange. --> She has an orange bag and two orange scarves.
As can be noticed in the example from the lesson Aurélie has given us, in plural phrases «orange» does NOT change form to agree in quantity, i.e. un sac orange and deux écharpes orange.
If one returns to the lesson and reviews the chart, the color «marron» is another case in point where the spelling does NOT change to agree in quantity.
There are a number of exceptions to agreeing colors with the noun they refer to.
The most notable one is that colors with the names of real objects (as, e.g., orange, marron etc.) remain unchanged.
Therefore the exception lies not with vêtements but with orange. -- Chris.
AurélieKwiziq team member
Bonjour Stuart !
Colours orange and marron are indeed specific cases, which are explained in more detail in the following lesson:
However, I do agree that this particularity needed to be highlighted more clearly in the lesson, and thanks to your feedback, I've now updated the lesson to make it clearer :)
Bonne journée !
Stuart asked:View original
Suzanne adore les vêtements oranges.
There is a question about this and my response (above) was incorrect. Is les vêtements an exception to adding the ‘s’ at the end to orange? I couldn’t see the exception in the discussion. Thanks.
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LorenKwiziq community member
Why isn't the complete table of adjective endings visible? The Fem plural is cut off?
Asked 2 years ago
Ron Kwiziq Q&A super contributor
Bonsoir Loren,
The complete table is visible on my PC. Perhaps one of the IT team members for Kwiziq can weigh-in on this.
Bonne chance.
LorenKwiziq community member
Merci, Ron.
Yes. I hope they will. Doesn't make much sense to have that table there unless it can be seen.
Amicalement,
Loren
LauraKwiziq team member
Bonjour Loren,
Could you please email us a screenshot and info about your device / browser? info@kwiziq.com
GioKwiziq community member
I am having the same problem. Also, I am using a laptop. I can send you a screen shot as well if need be
Loren asked:View original
Why isn't the complete table of adjective endings visible? The Fem plural is cut off?
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AurélieKwiziq team member
Bonjour Jennifer !
Thanks for that question: I've now added an explanatory section on this aspect in the core lesson.
Please have a look, and let me know if that's helpful!
Merci et à bientôt !
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RadhikaKwiziq community member
Can you explain how the same adjective is used in the before and also after the noun
for example: Elle a les cheveux longs et blonds becomes Elle a de long cheveux blonds.
Asked 3 years ago
AurélieKwiziq team member
Bonjour Radhika !
That's a good question!
It depends which rule you follow regarding adjectives:
- if you consider the adjectives one by one (longs/blonds), therefore you respect their established position: long is always before the noun, and blond after, hence Elle a de longs cheveux blonds.
- if you link these two adjectives with et (and), therefore the rule is to place them after the noun, hence Elle a les cheveux longs et blonds.
In French you can do either, as long as you stay coherent with the rules.
I hope that's helpful!
Radhika asked:View original
Can you explain how the same adjective is used in the before and also after the noun
for example: Elle a les cheveux longs et blonds becomes Elle a de long cheveux blonds.
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