Question 1

Why doesn't orange have an s at the end to match the plural chaussettes?

Accepted Answer

Colors derived from nouns—like fruits, flowers, or precious stones—are usually invariable in French. Because orange comes from the name of the fruit, it doesn't agree in gender or number with the noun it describes, so it never takes an s.

Question 2

Is kaki invariable for the same reason?

Accepted Answer

Yes! Kaki is the name of a fruit (a persimmon) and originally comes from a foreign word meaning "dust." Just like orange or marron, it acts as a noun-derived color, meaning it stays exactly the same in the plural.

Question 3

Why is it Leurs with an s, when "they" (the owners) are just one group of people?

Accepted Answer

In French, the possessive adjective always agrees with the thing being owned, not the owner. Even though "their" refers to a group of people, the s on Leurs is there purely because the item owned (chaussettes) is plural. If they shared a single sock, it would be leur chaussette.

Question 4

How does plutôt work in this sentence?

Accepted Answer

Here, plutôt means "rather" or "instead," offering a correction or an alternative to the first color. You will also frequently see plutôt used to mean "quite" or "fairly" in other contexts, such as C'est plutôt joli (It's quite pretty).

Question 5

Why is there no est-ce que or subject-verb inversion to make this a question?

Accepted Answer

This sentence uses intonation to ask the question, which is the most common way to ask questions in everyday, informal spoken French. You simply keep the standard statement word order and raise your pitch at the end. You could say Est-ce que leurs chaussettes sont..., but this version sounds more natural in casual conversation.

Leurs chaussettes sont kaki ou plutôt orange ?

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