"The man has brown shoes."
Translation:L'homme a des chaussures marron.
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Why is it "chaussures marron" and not "chaussures marronS" since it is plural doesn't the adjective have to agree with the noun "shoes"?
the reason is that there are a couple of French adjectives derived from nouns etc that are invariable and don't change (i.e. there is only 1 form for masculine/feminine and singular/plural -- like in English). 'marron' is one of them, 'cerise' (cherry) is another one..
when a color is also a FRUIT name it will remain in singular- like orange, cherry, hazel nut (marron)
when the color is also other thing other than the color it represents e.g. " sapphire-blue" "tobacco brown " it also will be invariant. so it is not only frutis.. its other thing than fruits
MARRON - invariable adjective. Its ending doesn't change. Ever.
BRUN - variable (brune, bruns, brunes) but isn't really used as a colour other than when describing hair.
I'm French-Canadian, and I've never used anything BUT "brun" to describe anything brown-coloured. I know it's not possible to include every regional variation, but it might be worth keeping in mind.
It's not just a Canadian thing. In French class at school, we were taught "brun," and my teacher only mentioned "marron" in passing as another possible translation. And I know for sure the curriculum we use is based on French French, not Canadian French. So yeah, I really think "brun" should be accepted on duolingo.
many many adjectives and colors are invariable and a long list is here: https://www.thoughtco.com/invariable-french-adjectives-1368796
@jeb1214
In French nouns almost always need an article or other determiner.
The English sentence means "the man has some brown shoes" but "some" is optional in the English sentence so can be left out without changing the meaning.
However the equivalent of "some" in French cannot be left out. In this case "des" = "some".
That sentence refers to some specific brown shoes ("the brown shoes"), while the prompt left out the definite article in English. That's a cue to use the plural indefinite, "des" .
I learned brun only when taking French in high school (Canada), had never heard marron. Is the usage here different in Quebec than France? What are some other differences that come to mind?
According to these comments, brun is used in reference to hair color, not necessarily "brown" in all contexts.
En tant qu'adjectif de couleur, "marron" est en théorie invariable. L'accord au pluriel n'est pas encore accepté mais se rencontre. -Word reference
why isn't it "marrones" or "marrons." Brown is an adjective and should agree in number with the word it modifies.
It does but it's an invariant adjective. You must learn these exceptions.
There is no 'marrons' or 'marrones' in French adjectives. That's what I mean by invariant; it doesn't change for gender or number. http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/adjectives_inv.htm
https://www.thoughtco.com/invariable-french-adjectives-1368796 for the long list of exceptions so helpful if end-changing primary colors are not accurate
489
One can use the forms "marrons, marrone," and "marrones." However, these would mean an entirely different adjective. This second, different usage is specifically an adjective meaning "illicit or crooked (of professions)," and comes from Spanish "cimarrón." An example of its usage is "médecins marrons (crooked doctors or quacks)," but I don't know if this adjective is still common in modern French or not. Plus, it wouldn't make sense in reference to shoes.
I used "des bottes" instead of "des chaussures". And in mistake popup I got "des souliers" as a right answer which I never heard of. Is "des bottes" that differ?
that might be another one, souliers is the word for shoes I learned in school in Canada, I had never heard chaussures til duolingo. Or would souliers be more informal ie maybe sneakers, or chaussures more general?
My dictionary says that « soulier » is indeed "shoe" but that it's « un peu vieilli » (i.e. a little old-fashioned).
@itz_Euphoria
"Brune" and "Brunes" (plural) - also mean "brown" but is only used when describing hair colour.
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Well, "les chaussures" means "THE shoes." Since we're just talking about some shoes, not THE shoes, we just use the indefinite "des."
Anybody could help??? I am a Portuguese native speaker. Is there duolingo, French X Portuguese besides French X English??? How could I change????
Yes, that exists. Click on your profile picture and add a new course. Choose "Portuguese" where it says "I speak..." and then select the "French" course.
Please read the comments for the answer before asking the same question again.
Please read the comments for the answer before asking the same question again.
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I've been using another sight (called tiny cards) it's supposed to be tailed to Duo Lingo and they have used "brun" to mean brown, and when I used that I was wrong. I still don't know why.
Wow! That is a massive list of exceptions
And, presumably that list covers only colour exceptions? I wonder if there are that many exceotions in the English language? Probably more if its not just colours being counted :-)
Can someone help me in which lesson I can review about du,des before uncountables and plurals etc. In general I make mistakes from this section. Thanks!
Perhaps I could point out that, despite the usual invariability of 'marron', Linguee does give an inflected example of its adjectival use: 'ses yeux étaient marrons'. Unless Linguee is glossing an error, I think that Duo should accept 'marrons' when the qualified noun is plural.