40 Comments
I had only seen one form of noir and I did not know that colours can change form.
Noir, like other adjectives, has a masculine (noir), feminine (noire), and plural form. The plural can be masculine (noirs) or feminine (noires)
775
thank you. Now I have a better understanding of the various endings of adjectives
So, is it that the noun being described is feminine? Like would it be "Il a une robe noire" because robe is feminine?
No, that sentence does not make sense.
Imagine you are talking about your collection of jeans. You can say "j'en ai un noir" (I have a black one). In plural: "j'en ai des noirs". (In French, "a pair of jeans" = un jean).
Now for feminine words, like "chemise" (shirt): "j'en ai une noire" for singular and "j'en ai des noires" for plural.
Clarification: the "en" mentioned in the examples can be roughly translated here as meaning "of them"
J'en ai un noir = I have a black one (of them)
Or in another way (not grammatically correct in english), "I, of them, have a black one"
Don't agree because it is an adjective most of the time. "black apples" --> "pommes noirs" so "black" translates to "noirs" is this case.
You're right, but adjectives of colours are extremely tricky : as soon as the colour is a fruit (orange), it becomes invariable: "des carottes orange."
- 775
are you saying that fruit colors are always singular even their object is plural?
Yes, examples:
Un pantalon marron, des pantalons marron, une robe marron, des robes marron.
It should teach all the forms first- I hadn't seen the plural of black yet so I shouldn't get this wrong!
- 775
I learn from my mistakes as well as from the correct answers. Now you will remember, probably more than if you had guessed and got the answer marked as correct.
i understand why it seems unfair. I missed noires too. But I guess getting the answer wrong sometimes is good; helps u to learn.
Same problem. It was the first time I saw other the thwo other options, so that just had me guessing.. And know I have to do the whole thing all over...
Making a mistake, even when it isn't your fault, is a good way to learn. If you get a question wrong because you didn't have all the information necessary, next time you will (hopefully) remember being wrong.
Remember that French, like Spanish (my native language), is a Latin derived language, and in those, adjectives have both gender and number, and must match in gender and number with the noun they go with.
Noir: masculine, singular Noire: feminine, singular Noirs: masculine, plural Noires: feminine, plural
Noires has not yet been used in the lesson. We've seen noir, and noire, but not noires. How could we know it existed? Nice to see the explanation in a comment, at least.
Noires has not yet been used in the lesson. We've seen noir, and noire, but not noires. How could we know it existed? Nice to see the explanation in a comment, at least.
Duolingo never gives any explanation about grammar and syntax.
When you discover a new word or construction:
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either you guess (in this case, that according to singular/plural and masculine/feminine words, there are several forms for the same adjective: noir (masc. sing.), noire (fem. sing.), noirs (masc. plur.) and noires (fem. plur.).)
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or you go to the main "Discussion" page and use the Search feature to check whether somebody else has asked a similar question (which is the case at 99%) and you read the answers already given by other learners.
