"Les chaussures sont jaune pâle."

Translation: The shoes are pale yellow.

[FilippaMD]

why is "light" not accepted - do you not say that in english?

[CommeuneTexane]

A closer translation to light yellow is "jaune clair" in French.

[hec10tor]

to me pale and light are good synomyns.

[CommeuneTexane]

As explained to me by someone with more experience in these nuances than I have, light refers to color saturation or intensity. Pale is a matter of how much white is mixed in with the color. The more white, the paler the color.

This distinction is important in French even if we are more casual about such terms in English.

[Christian491946]

Agreed.

[FilippaMD]

okay thanks!

[Nautilier]

"The shoes are light yellow" accepted 10/2/2019

[Donna215004]

Since "chaussures" is plural, wouldn't the adjectives be plural as well, i.e. "jaunes pâles"?

[CommeuneTexane]

Colors are a bit tricky in French. When you have a modified color, it becomes invariable. This means that you don't alter it to account for gender or number.

Example:
Les livres sont vert foncé. (dark green)
Nos clés sont gris clair. (light gray)
Mes fraises sont rouge foncé. (dark red)

Basically when you have two words in a row describing the color, the words stay singular and masculine.

[tkayaozkan]

this is a bit overwhelming. but thank you regardless.

[CommeuneTexane]

You are welcome! Each new concept does feel a bit overwhelming at first, doesn't it? It gets better with time and practice. ;-)

[MrHazard]

Here's a good site that addresses this issue:
https://www.thoughtco.com/invariable-french-adjectives-1368796

[FilippaMD]

I'm not sure but I think that only applies if you'd say "the pale yellow shoes", but since it's "the shoes ARE pale yellow" that's not needed (maybe because it's already implied that they are plural thanks to the plural form of "are")

[Ross468731]

Pale and light are the same in English

[Wollrich]

Agreed. The only place I've heard "pale" in the context of color is on BBC, so maybe Brits make the distinction? But colloquially in the United States, one would say "light yellow" in this context. That isn't to say "pale" would be wrong in the U.S. nor to say it's never used, but "light" is more common.

[Yunanuu]

Why isn't "The shoes are a pale yellow accepted"?

[Hanan912343]

why we say jaune and not jaunes with les chaussures as they are plural

[CommeuneTexane]

Colors that have been modified by another word like (pâle, clair, foncé...) become invariable. They don't form agreements with the noun they describe.

So it is always:
jaune pâle
rouge foncé
gris clair

[Cecilia203378]

I hear it as cho su vey for chaussures... struggling with the pronunciation

[Christian491946]

In american english it is very uncommon to say "pale yellow". Light yellow should be an acceptable answer for american learners but only when translating this sentence from french to english.