Unchanging Colors

In this lesson, we're going to discuss a somewhat tricky aspect of French color words. Like the vast majority of adjectives, most French color words agree in gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural) with the noun they modify. Let's take the adjective noir (black) as an example:

Ils peuvent être noirs.

It can be black.

Caption 11, Le saviez-vous? - Le vocabulaire de la tête
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Ensuite vous avez mon écharpe noire, une simple étole.

Then you have my black scarf, a simple wrap.

Caption 9, Fanny parle des saisons - S'habiller en hiver
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In the first sentence, noir modifies the masculine plural noun cheveux ("hair" is always plural in French), so it takes the masculine plural ending -s (noirs). In the second sentence, noir modifies the feminine singular noun écharpe, so it takes the feminine singular ending -e (noire).

However, certain color adjectives are invariable—that is, they never change regardless of the gender and number of the noun. All of these adjectives are derived from nouns. Take orange for example. As in English, in French orange refers to both the color and the fruit (une orange). Though you can certainly have de multiples oranges (multiple oranges), the adjective form of the word never changes, even in the plural:

J'ai acheté des chaussures orange.
I bought orange shoes.

On the other hand, rouge (red) isn't invariable (since it's not derived from a noun), so it does change in the plural:

Tu as acheté des chaussures rouges.
You bought red shoes.

Another common color adjective that never changes is marron. Un marron is a chestnut, but when used as an adjective, it just means "brown":

Regardez ces chiens. Ils sont marron?

Look at these dogs. Are they brown?

Caption 52, Leçons avec Lionel - Couleurs
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The other word for brown, brun, is variable. In this example, it modifies the feminine plural noun feuilles (leaves):

De tas de feuilles à moitié mortes...

Lots of half-dead leaves...

Un jour vertes, un jour brunes

One day green, one day brown

Captions 9-11, Stromae - Bienvenue chez moi
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There's another word for "chestnut" too! It's une châtaigne. The related adjective châtain is variable and is often used to describe hair color:

Ils peuvent être châtains.

It can be chestnut-colored.

Châtain, c'est marron.

"Chestnut" is brown.

Captions 12-13, Le saviez-vous? - Le vocabulaire de la tête
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Some other invariable color adjectives are: abricot (apricot), ardoise (slate), argent (silver), azur (azure), brique (brick), bronze (bronze), café (coffee), caramel (caramel), champagne (champagne), chocolat (chocolate).

There's one more instance of invariability you should be aware of when dealing with color words. When you use more than one adjective to designate a single color (like "light blue," "dark green," etc.), neither of the adjectives changes according to the noun it modifies. For example:

Il a les yeux bleu clair et les cheveux brun foncé.
He has light blue eyes and dark brown hair.

But:

Il a les yeux bleus et les cheveux bruns.
He has blue eyes and brown hair.

As you may have noticed, like many other adjectives, color adjectives always follow the noun in French. See our previous lesson for more information on that. And for a good introduction to colors in French, check out Lionel's video on the subject.

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Topics Grammar