Français — Invariable colour adjectives
Most French colour adjectives agree in gender and number, but some never change. Colours borrowed from nouns like marron and orange, and any two-word colour such as bleu clair or vert foncé, stay invariable.
How it works
Two groups never take -e or -s: colours that are really nouns (marron = chestnut, orange = the fruit), and compound colours where a second word qualifies the shade. So you write des chaussures marron, des rideaux orange, des murs bleu clair and des volets vert foncé, with no ending on either word.
Examples
| Colour | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| marron | brown (from chestnut) | des yeux marron |
| orange | orange (from the fruit) | des gants orange |
| bleu clair | light blue | des murs bleu clair |
| vert foncé | dark green | des volets vert foncé |
| bleu marine | navy blue | des jupes bleu marine |
| rouge cerise | cherry red | des lèvres rouge cerise |
Good to know
A few noun-colours have become adjectives and do agree: rose, mauve, fauve, écarlate and pourpre take a normal -s, so you write des robes roses, not des robes rose. Careful: with a compound colour a truly variable colour also freezes — une chemise verte becomes des chemises vert clair, with no -e and no -s.