Color matching is often a problem. As always with the French language, there are rules and exceptions. We will explain everything to you.
Spelling and grammar rules are not so easy to remember for children, but also for adults. When you think you have mastered the French language, exceptions make things a little more difficult. To avoid making mistakes when you write a text mentioning colors, here are the rules to know for matching these colored words.
Green eyes and blue shoes. This is the first rule we learn: a color adjective always agrees in gender and number with the noun to which it relates. So, the dogs are black, white teeth and red hair. But, of course, there are exceptions. The first concerns colors taken from a common name. In this case, the adjective of color is invariable, which means that it should never be agreed.
We find in this list colors linked to fruits like brown, orange, plum, peach, hazelnut or lemon, the names of metals like silver, gold, bronze, but also coffee, coral, salmon, mahogany, ebony, mustard, cream or even indigo. It will therefore logically be necessary to write brown eyes, salmon dresses and orange sweaters.
To make the exception even worse, there are exceptions to the exception. Thus certain colors derived from nouns agree well in gender and number with the adjective to which they relate. This is particularly the case for pink, purple, mauve, scarlet or even gold. Example: pink skirts, scarlet shoes, gold jewelry.
One last one for the road, and then we’ll let you practice! Colors made up of several words are invariable. A pale blue dress, lemon yellow plates, apple green skirts, a light gray rabbit. Did you notice that there is no hyphen between the two words? This is normal, the hyphen is reserved for a particular case: when the two words which qualify the noun are both colors. For example a gray-blue sweater or brown-green eyes.